When Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp Go Down

I woke up at around 1:15 in the morning. It had just rained, so the air was quite cool. I'd normally wake up sweaty, especially during the summers even with the fan on. Last April, I finally, finally, invested in an airconditioner, an appliance I swore I would never need or buy, but the heat was getting in the way of work.

Sad to say, the first thing I do is pick up my phone and check social media. My current phone (purchased early-2020) is a Samsung A50, one of those mid-range models, which I bought only because of the camera. I had wanted to start producing drawing tutorials at the time,  not knowing that I'd go full swing into it because of the pandemic. More on that in another blogpost.

I couldn't access Facebook. I thought there was something wrong with the connection. But Twitter confirmed that Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp were down. I began to think again about how humanity had become dependent/addicted to social media platforms, especially to the tech behemoth Facebook (2.89 billion monthly users as of this writing).

That's why I'm here again, blogging. I decided to write something down.

Another reason why I came back here is Komikon. Sherry Baet-Zamar had emailed me about a book they wanted to put together, tracing back the history of Komikon through the eyes of komiks creators. Because I hardly remember what went on during those early years, I searched through my blog archive, and thankfully the blog entries from 2006 were still intact.

2006 was, what, 15 years ago? So much has happened since then. I should start writing down what I can remember.

Side Notes: The 17 year-old Facebook is currently facing another crisis with a whistleblower (Frances Haugen) claiming the platform deliberately encourages negative content to boost its ad revenues.  See here and here.