The INSTAGRAM ShutDown - My Takeaways
By Meghan Connors
Unless you have no social media, odds are you were affected by the Facebook Shutdown that took place today on Monday, October 4th. With this shutdown, Facebook, Instagram, and What’s App became unusable leaving over 3 billion users without access to their accounts or the accounts of others. And while the glitch may seem like an inconvenient blip in the grand scheme of our daily lives, this blackout day, for me at least, put a few very important things into perspective.
How Many Hours a Day I Find Myself Reliant on Social Media for Entertainment.
While Tik Tok filled the boredom void for most of the day, it was moments where I couldn’t watch videos (due to an inability to use my volume and hindrances) that showed me how often I switch over to Instagram looking to scroll mindlessly. I found myself having to actively refrain from constantly switching over as muscle memory kicked in to do frequent check-ins.
The Accounts/Platforms I spent Years Building on Instagram Could be Gone in a Second and There’s Nothing I Can Do About it.
I have multiple Instagram accounts. A personal account, a food account, an account for this site, and others. To all of which I have devoted countless hours to building, posting, and engaging. It wasn’t until today that I realized if the day came where Instagram just “went away,” there would be nothing I could do. All of the relationships I’ve made through the app, the stories I’ve told in my posts, and everything else I don’t immediately recognize as valuable would be gone with no opportunity for retrieval. The thought alone puts a pain in my chest. And I am only a small creator. I cannot imagine the anxiety that invaded the minds of creators who have staked their livelihood on Facebook’s social media platforms.
Also?! SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS. How are they doing after today? This affected their whole job! If Facebook and its subsidiaries went away for good, what would happen to every social media employee in the world? Would they be fired on account of the platform with which they do their jobs no longer exists?! Would they create new platforms or switch over entirely to the ones that were still running?! I NEED ANSWERS.
This Shutdown Brought Up A Lot of Bad News About Facebook - Things I Should Probably Care About.
Clearly, Facebook is hiding something; actually, more like somethingS. So, does this mean I should stop using their apps and steer clear of the company all together? But, as I’ve already stated, I'm addicted. And I can’t abandon my platforms. So what do I do?
What do we all do?
