On Monday, Oct. 4, late in the morning, at least in this time zone, something scary and uncertain happened that nearly brought the world to a halt — Facebook stopped working.
Not only Facebook but Instagram and WhatsApp also.
Millions of people around the world had fewer opportunities to “swipe up”. So-called “IG influencers” could not influence, or whatever it is that they do. Thousands of lunch pictures went unposted — all those sandwiches and no one to look at them.
People had to find other ways to use their work time other than for working. Many flocked to Twitter and filled the void in their lives 200 or so characters at a time.
Rumors began to spread that Facebook was “gone”. Fear set in that all of those “memories,” photos, and check-ins could have been erased from this eon of human history.
But, several hours later, a collective “whew” was heard around the social media landscape.
Facebook and its partner apps were back in working condition again and everyone’s lives could get back to normal.
How on earth did anything I just said, which may have confused some of you, become what “normal” is?
Do we need Facebook?
No. We don’t. We really don’t.
So common among the hasty comments or poll answers were an abundant number of people saying they hoped the nearly 20-year-old social media giant would be gone for good.
So, are we all saying we’d be better off without Facebook? Is it just Facebook we’d be better off without, or all social media?
If Facebook went the way of the dodo, or Friendster, would other platforms just fill the void?
Fewer people are watching TV, but Netflix is doing quite well.
You don’t see a lot of people putting quarters in Pac-Man machines anymore, but gaming is as big as it ever was.
Pokémon cards aren’t being traded as much, but kids are running into things playing Pokémon Go on their phones.
Still “gotta catch ‘em all!”
Or, could we be optimistic that a fading away of Facebook would be the first step to being a non-social media, non-“I need to share everything and see that other people are sharing” culture?
So, we had a few moments of life without one of the largest social media apps/sites/platforms out there and most people were perfectly fine.
I did ponder that possibility. What would I lose if Facebook went “poof; bye, bye”?
I’d have lost a few photos that were only there and saved nowhere else. I can already hear my late grandma telling me I should have had prints made of them.
I’d lose a way of connecting with others, but I’m sure I have alternate means. Somehow the phone and email became too awkward to use, so Facebook it is?
More seriously, the Catholic Herald Facebook page would be gone, which has served as a valuable tool for those who have access to it, as well as other parish and diocesan resources.
A lot of people would miss seeing the “Moment with the Bishop” videos, but, as said before, there are other platforms.
At the risk of Mr. Zuckerberg coming after me, I think we might just all agree that we’d be ok without Facebook.
People have lost memories, connections, and other communications with others for decades, and we’ve always moved on to something better or more useful.
What can we learn?
Facebook, our experiences, our time . . . they are temporary, fleeting, and could be all gone just like that.
Naturally, this is an “only God and His love is forever” moment of reflection, but I hope that would be obvious.
While Facebook and everything else in the online world that takes up our time and energy can be very useful and helpful, we’re more than that.
Without Facebook, would we try a little harder to see people in person, or make the most of the time we have with them?
We couldn’t take for granted the idea of knowing what’s going on with people that we’re close to every day.
We’d have to actually remember people’s birthdays.
The fact that so many people said they’d be perfectly fine with Facebook being gone has to be telling us something.
I’m not going to tell you to delete your profiles. I’m not doing that any time soon, but I am going to be reflecting on this more.
For those of you that aren’t on Facebook or any social media, trust me, you’re doing just fine. Most people are envious of you.
It’s just a social media platform. Its Book of Job moment has passed, but we’ve got some thinking to do.