Facebook goes down, is it the end of the world?
According to some sources, Facebook was down today for about an hour and a half. A lot of people use this popular app, but if it went offline for an extended length of time, or went away permanently, would you care?
According to some sources, Facebook was down today for about an hour and a half. A lot of people use this popular app, but if it went offline for an extended length of time, or went away permanently, would you care?
According to TechCrunch, the outage lasted from about 10:00 AM PST to 11:30 AM PST. Normally, I wouldn’t think that any website’s outage would be cause for alarm, let alone a blog entry, as most people rely on their net connection, not a specific website for the majority of their daily needs. After all, it can’t be compared to outages like the kind experienced by AOL users years ago, when a busy signal meant you were offline. Period. Right?
On the other hand, the pain felt during an outage of any kind is directly related to the number of people it affects. Facebook recently announced that they have over 30 million ‘active’ members. That’s a big community and presumably a good number of them were inconvenienced as a result of the outage.
I’m gonna come clean: I’m not on Facebook, and everything I’ve learned about it through friends and colleagues – the vast majority of whom *are* Facebookers – leads me to think that I’m far better off without it in my life. I barely have time to get to the must-do things on my to-do list without the seemingly addictive call of a social networking site.
So now that you know that I’m amongst the group who weren’t annoyed at all by this morning’s events, let me ask you this:
How important are sites like Facebook? If you use Facebook, or MySpace, or any other social networking site, would a lengthy outage cause you serious distress or would you look at it as an opportunity to focus on other activities?
Update, Aug. 1 12:25 PM EST:
Facebook speaks up about yesterday’s outage.
I personally am very thankful that Facebook exists. I have been struggling with a mental illness for quite a few years now and basically disappeared as far as friends were concerned. Now that I am well and feeling back to my old "social butterfly" self, it's been great to catch up with so many old friends, especially locally, and start to create a new social network for myself!
I wouldn't be lost without Facebook for a while but as of now, I'm still looking forward to catching up with friends!
I wouldn't mind if facebook went down or went off the net. I am on it but just periodically, but I know people who live their lives on it and that is unfortunate. As with everything in life; it's all good in moderation.
i wouldn't be distresed if face book went offline.i am a new user.i am at home with 7 kids all day and don't have much of a social life so it is a nice way for me to keep in touch with family and freinds.i don't stay on for hours i just leave it on and check it every now and then.it makes me feel less lonely.but i wouldn't be in dire straights if it wasn't there.i managed before without it.
I use Facebook a lot. I have found friends of mine that I havent spoken to in years from school days past, and family members that I had no other way of contacting. Would I be devastated?…no… would I be inconvenienced?… very. With busy schedules and work weeks and such, Facebook usually is the only way I can connect with others nowadays. Id love to see it stay around…for the sake of those who just want to stay in contact with those they need to.
I'm on Facebook at least once a day but not for very long so I could manage without it
I do have account there, and for the few first days I spent a quite some time there, but after novelty wore off,now I rarely log in to it. I feel that this is huge black hole where your time is just truly wasted. If you have good friends you really need, you should be able to keep up witrh them at least a few times a year by e-mail/phone call. Other people – you lust live by illusions that they are your 'friends'.
I do believe though that some websited/forums can be different – when they have some substance in them. I am a member of a group of ~ 15 people for almost 5 years now, we did become real friends, and it's really supportive and interesting group…
i don't use non of that crap. take it off!
I like facebook. I don't know why people hate on it. It's like how some people are just anti-cell phone. They hate something everyone else has or does just to be different I guess. I'm sure like anything, facebook can become problematic if you're on it 24/7. But for those of us with lives, we use it as a way to see how people we know are doing. No, we can't call every single person and ask them individually how they are. It'd be nice, but it's not realistic. Facebook allows you the chance to see how someone you're acquainted with is doing without the awkward 5-minute phone conversation. I say, long live facebook and other social networking websites.
I just started the other week there. I've already found some friends from university and so on. If it went down I'd lose contact with them since they don't live locally. However I don't plan to talk daily on it to anyone, just check every couple days. I like the messaging system better than email or myspace.
At first FB seemed like a useful tool to reconnect with long lost friends and in afew cases that might be true but this site merely seems to be like a 'bragging' site on how many friends one has, etc. People lose contact with one another for a reason and without FB they would have never spoken again. Worse yet is that these so called 'friends'? You never even speak to on the site! They are just 'there'!
I travel all the time and facebook is a way for me to keep in touch with how all my friends and family are doing even when I am far away. I find it helps me to not feel like I am missing as much, I am gone for 5 months at a time. Plus I can share my adventures and pictures right away instead of the next time I am home.
I Live For Facebook in & out all day I have found many friends I have not seen in over 20 years……. thought I Never would hear from again as has many of My other Friends………….
It wouldn't really bother me. I do use facebook but I do still have a very active real life.
Well I check up on facebook everyday or so. Nice to stay in touch with people, I could do without it, though as mentioned, it would be inconvienent.
I was unbelievably angry while Facebook was offline. Facebook (and a couple of other sites) are all I surf –make that do–while I'm at work. So for me, the hour and a half it was offline doing upgrading really made it longer. Had I not been at work? I'd probably wouldn't even care.
As a Canadian studying in New Zealand I use Facebook to let my friends and family back home know what I've been up to and see pictures without having to do a mass email. And to see what they've been doing. I also use it to keep in touch with them – I can quickly leave a short note on my sister's or brother's wall that wouldn't seem worth an email.
That said, I only check Facebook a few times a week. I'd be a bit upset if it just disappeared without warning as I don't have some people's physical address or even email address anymore.
i'm sick of people accusing others of never going outside just because they use facebook. that doesn't even make sence. i facebook, work and hike daily. i also enjoy other activities like motorcycle riding, camping and dirt bike riding. obviously some of you freaks facebook WAY too much. i wouldn't care if it was taken off line. meh
I would be devastated if Facebook went down permanently. I don't facebook "stalk" other members, I do not have a hundred extra applications added onto my profile, but I still use facebook for it's intended purpose; college/university students corresponding with their classmates.
Originally, you had to have an official university/college e-mail address before you could register as a member. I do not mind that it's an open community now, but a lot of students still use the site for its' original intended purpose. There are many course discussion groups and homework study sessions, as well as extra-circular school events. Seeing as it's final season, I was quite worried about the outage as we have a class discussion group for our first final up and running.
I like facebook. Would be fine with it if it was down a for a few hours, or a day or two. Longer than that would be annoying though. Facebook is fun!
lol ;-)
I personally LOVE facebook!!! It has brought me back in contact with a lot of people!!! :) I check it daily (I'll admit, sometimes even more than once per day) and I would miss it terribly if it was taken off permanently, but when it's just for a couple of hours it's not the end of the world!!!
There's a LOT of things to do on there too, besides looking at friends' pics and keeping up to date with what's going on in their lives – you can play MANY different games, laugh at jokes, listen to music, etc.
Long live Facebook I say!!! :D