At around 5:30 PM on Tuesday afternoon, Facebook temporarily shut down, and Messenger, Threads and Instagram kicked users out of its interface and didn't let anyone back in. The first reports arrived after 4 p.m., after half an hour more than a hundred thousand had been received, and finally more than 460 thousand error reports had been received from all over the world. The article in which we reported on this attracted hundreds of thousands of readers to click through within a short period of time.
Social media sites are like the heating or gas in our apartment, we take them for granted. When it disappears from our lives, we can feel weak
Petra Akzel, professor of communication and media studies at MOME, told the Index: According to the expert, we already depend on our applications to a large extent, which was also demonstrated by the current temporary lockdown and the reactions to it. “When these apps disappear, we feel like we don't have anything that makes us feel smarter. This doesn't happen when there's no yogurt in the store, we see ourselves as incompetent,” Akzel explained.
Instant communications, quick responses
According to the expert, although these applications will not actually make us smarter, we can access information faster, communicate more interactively, and access groups. This is a feature of postmodern relations. We feel that we are not alone.
Social media is like air: it has become part of our mental environment and we cannot do without it
The professor pointed out. He pointed out that this addiction will increase more and more in the coming years, and if we meditate, we can discover its signs for ourselves. The fact that we are part of social networking sites is often not our choice, but it is already there in front of us when we open our smartphone.
We want answers, then we settle down
According to the expert, it is an interesting phenomenon, for example, that hundreds of thousands suddenly wanted to know about the background of the index closing.
When something happens in the media world, we visit another media outlet in an interesting way. We get information from the same source that disappointed us
– Pointed out Petra Akzel, who says that it is useful to address these closures if they happen not only to us, but also to others. This may be partly why we first inquire from our immediate environment whether the app has leaked to them, as was the case with the Index editorial office. Therefore, we first look for communications, and then we try to find out the reason in the media, because in this case the demand for information naturally increases. Then comes the stage of searching for effective solutions, where we, for example, send an error report to the service company. According to the expert, users can tolerate these short-term shutdowns, but if the apps do not work for two weeks, the drain will be felt.
We prefer to avoid bad dating partners
According to Árpád Pap Várí, vice president of the Hungarian Marketing Association, the social media site can handle a few of these shutdowns, but you can't control the threads indefinitely. The expert explained that it is like when we have a partner on a date who is constantly late for ten minutes, and after a while we no longer trust him.
The issue needs to be resolved quickly, because if more of this happens, it will hit heads and posts and memes about it will spread in no time.
The expert explained. This just happened, after the lockdown, the internet was filled with many memes, and we made a collection of them.
According to the expert, it is important to clarify what went wrong. The first step is to report the company's discovery of the bug and announce that it is working on a solution as soon as possible. This is what Meta did. These steps can actually reassure users.
Then you have to explain why the closing occurred. Of course, people still want to know the reasons. The expert pointed out that this was not the first case of its kind recently, but the previous case raised greater concern than the current case: On February 14thFacebook also became unavailable after 1pm. At that time, only 8,000 error reports were received, and service was restored within an hour.
Meanwhile, none of the closures have caused major problems. According to the expert
It is important to apologize to users if a refund is made.
“It's a classic case of KFC running out of chicken and customers throwing a tantrum. The company communicated this by thanking employees for restoring order and expressing their regret,” the expert explained in how to communicate well in such cases. He added that companies should build their own different channels, Like a mailing list, so you don't have to rely on it being available on a social platform.
Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, responded to the incident on Tuesday On the X side.
Due to technical issues, our services were previously difficult to access for many. We resolved the issue for all participants as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience!
“Any malfunction could cause such an event, you don't necessarily have to think about hacking. There could have easily been a malfunction” – this has already been pointed out by Istvan Toth, the expert who spoke to Index, according to which, of course, it could have been There is an attack in the background, but at the same time, with such a large system – no matter how incredible it may seem – it is easy to make a mistake that can have such consequences.
(Cover photo: Richard Baker/Getty Images)
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