I wasn't aware of the "Facebook outage" until I read this article. I later caught a segment on ABC news about the "panic" and mayhem that it caused. Then I went to ask my roommates if they knew and they both spoke of those 3 hours like the darkest time they've faced recently (One of them is VERY serious about getting to Facebook stalk "hot guys from class"). They were forced to actually talk and entertain themselves. Shocking. I think it's crazy how much Facebook has wiggled its way into our lives. So much so that we don't even notice when we reference "wallposts" and statuses in face-to-face conversation. Technology that didn't even exist 10 years ago is now so common and in your face that my grandmother knows about it and Facebook even gets mentioned on the news. I just thought I'd share this funny article about how people may have been spending there time when they couldn't get on the website. I particularlly liked the lines about the baby boom and work productivity! As a possible research proposal, I'd like to see how a self-proclaimed Facebook addict would handle giving it up for a week, 3 weeks, maybe even a couple of months. Then to see how their life has changed because of it-better face-to-face communication, better grades, increase in communication and commitment to your romantic relationship(s) or feeling less connected and out of the loop. I might try this personally. I just can't commit to deactivating my profile and having to re-tag pictures when (or if!) I decide to rejoin the world of Facebook....
What do you guys think? Bad idea? Not worth it? Not interesting enough?
Ashley, this is so interesting! I did not know about how facebook was down until I heard a story about it on the news. They said it was "the worst" outage since the website had started! Oh no! Many people really do depend on facebook for communication purposes. I mean we do have phones, texting, emails, driving to meet someone... facebook should not shut down out lives. And we should not let it.
ReplyDeleteI love the research idea that your presented! I think that is so interesting and really relevant to our population, especially to college students. And I am curious to see what the reported change would be after the study. It would be totally worth it to hopefully see the change and help users understand how you could use it in a healthy way. I had facebook in high school but didn't use it as frequently as now. However, I guess I thought I used it too much because I gave it up for lent during my senior year. I remember it being hard, but I definitely did it. And besides, what would we miss anyways? Just some pictures and stuff... we hear all the news and events from our friends anyways!
Also- I heard about Mark Zuckerberg being on the Oprah show. Check out the link and video if you're interested.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/24/mark-zuckerberg-oprah-vid_n_738468.html
Hilarious story! I love the "fake tweets" from "Voldemort" and others. I also didn't know about the outage - must have been doing something else! The response reminds me a bit of the early days of Second Life when entire "world" would sometimes crash. Immediately the SL message boards would fill up with people complaining about the crash, and saying they were checking every 5 min to see when it would come back up.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's easy for me to make fun of these people, I know that when something happens to my computer at work and I can't do what I had planned to do, I get VERY frustrated and impatient for it to be up and working again! So I'm not so different from these folks when it comes to my reliance on technology to make it through my day!
Ok this is hilarious, but I have to say I, laughing at myself too.
ReplyDeleteI too went a little crazy during the facebook crash. I’m not too stuck on facebook but at the time I wanted to be nosy and stalk some folks myself, so it made me antsy.
However as a devoted tweeter I get just as panic stricken when that dreaded whale appears proclaiming "over capacity" ... It’s like my world stops, and it’s kind of sickening now that I think about it.
I think you’ve got an entertaining but could enlightening research topic. I do wonder why our generation is so keen for facebook and can exhibit anxiety when a web page goes down like that
This really is too funny. I didn't know facebook had crashed before reading your post either. I think it's interesting that some people were actually THAT devistated by no facebook for a few hours. It would be pretty frustrating but I think I could've probably gotten past it without having a meltdown. Some of those tweets were hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI think thats an awesome research idea! I happen to have a close friend who deleted her facebook about a year and a half ago because she was a self-proclaimed "addict". She swears that not having a facebook has improved her grades and life. You should try it out and see if thats the case for you!
I also find this to be funny, but I am sure the people who had to go without facebook found it quite disturbing and anything but funny. To be honest I had no idea there was even an outage and if I had tried to sign on during that time, I probably assumed my internet was being slow.
ReplyDeleteThe research proposal you suggested sounds so interesting and I would be fascinated to see what kind of results that study would produce. I am positive every person in our class can think of more than a few friends who would be great participants in an experiment like this!
This is HIGH-larious! OMG people are rediculous! Facebook is unbelievable! Ever since I have started this class I have actually been a little embarrassed about using facebook at all, but to be honest, I need it. It's like a drug. I don't see any of you outside this class...and if we were facebook friends it would literally be my only way to communicate with you other than in class. I hate that! I wish our paths would cross more, and maybe they would if we were forced to quit fbook and get out more? I feel like more and more of us would interact or try to hangout more...or at least I would. I want to break the habit and have a few times, but I am a big push over and after a few of my friends kept bugging me about "how am i supposed to reach you?" "how am I supposed to see what you;re up to?" stuff like that...i should have said why not call me or stop by to hangout, but instead I just clicked reactivate....so LAME!
ReplyDeleteIn short I think this would be an excellent experiment and I also think we should all try it!!! who knows it could be fun!!