On life’s little incidents

It seems the whole world had a bit of a crisis this week as several social media platforms shuddered to a halt for almost six hours. I don’t do Instagram, so that didn’t affect me, but not having Facebook or Whatsapp was quite a challenge! We’ve become so used to having these ways of communication at the tips of our fingers, that to suddenly see them vanish caused quite a stir. Like many other people I switched my phone on and off several times assuming that was the problem. I knew my wi-fi was working as I was still able to get certain things online, but it puzzled me that my Facebook feed wasn’t updating and everything seemed to be frozen in time.

I checked my Whatsapp, which I rely on to have a group chat with several friends at once only to find that was also at a standstill. Oh crikey! As the evening progressed with little or no change it made me wonder just how we managed before these forms of communication. I remain a lover of handwritten letters in the post, but the turnaround time with this method is quite prehistoric and pigeon post would probably be faster. Emails don’t always get the quick response you sometimes need, and I often struggle to upload a picture in a text message.

I know several people who refuse to go on Facebook and are very wary of it, but I’ve been using it for many years and think it’s a fabulous way of keeping in contact with friends and family whilst also following pages related to my hobbies and interests. I think I’d be quite lost without that contact. Is that a good or a bad thing? I suppose it depends on how you use it. I’m in touch with people I wouldn’t normally phone up for a chat but instead we have regular light hearted banter online which often brightens up my day. I avoid the political debates, conspiracy theories and just scroll past any nonsense.

I confess that I was one of the very many who breathed a huge sigh of relief as the problem was sorted and realise just how much I appreciate this bit of technology. I won’t be rushing out to buy a notepad, envelopes and stamps any day soon.