They say there’s nothing like losing something to make you realise how special it truly is to you. Remember when Facebook and its family apps including Instagram and Whatsapp were inaccessible for hours? You’d reach out to your phone, try to refresh it and get … nothing… for… HOURS! A vital communications platform used by billions frozen, showcasing just how dependent the world has become on one company and our phones.
What was that day like for you? For a couple of hours did you feel free? Were you transported to your childhood when apps were not a thing? Did it feel like skipping through a field of corn – like a weight had been taken off your shoulders? Or did you not feel peace – at all!?
Here are three things we learnt during the social media outage:
[RG: @spoiledvenus]
Social media is temporary
Be mindful of how you interact with something that can go away so quickly! We tend to put so much effort towards social but in reality, it can disappear anytime.
Have other ways of connecting to people
It is easy to depend on social media apps to contact people. Pick up the phone or send an old-fashioned email. If you are relying on using social media for business purposes, you need to have a back-up plan for your business. Think about how businesses were growing before social media. There were websites, business cards and email marketing. You cannot rely on one source because that main source may not be here in the next few hours, days, weeks, months, years.
Enjoy the world beyond social media
If you cannot go a couple of hours without liking, posting, commenting, or just staring at a screen than you need to dig deeper on why. Why can’t you give your phone a break and read a book, breathe in nature, watch a TV show if you need that stimulation or sleep? And when you go back to using social media, use it in more positive ways.
