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The great Facebook blackout may have reminded us all how much communication we have tied to online sites and social media.  Some of you may not have even noticed that Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger were all dark for a few hours last week because you are far more disciplined than I. I am quite tied to the online world and though at times I take a pause, it’s usually short-lived. Since I started this blog, I depend on social media for promotion and notifications. It’s also how I communicate with close friends and family, even though most all of them have my phone number. It’s an easy way to find out what’s going on in local, national and world news since I don’t watch network television anymore. It’s one of my forms of entertainment as I follow rabbit trails of cute baby animal videos or 81-year-olds learning to ride a skateboard.   

While some of you may believe that social media is the devil’s sandbox, I embrace the positive and negative sides. I advocate for caution, privacy limitations and monitoring, especially for minors. There are scary things out there and they aren’t hard to find. It’s also a huge time-sucker if you let it be (guilty as charged).  However, I have made many friends through the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, some in faraway parts of the world.  One of those friends in Australia and I exchanged phone numbers recently “just in case” things get crazy in the online world.  We don’t want to permanently lose touch. 

I will not get into a discussion here about theories that we are all being manipulated by powers behind the sites (without question, we are). I also won’t, in this space, entertain thoughts about a giant cataclysmic blackout event being just around the corner (undoubtedly that is highly likely). But a hack that took down several major media sites for several hours makes you think about what we would do if we did have an extended period of time without internet access.

It has been in my lifetime that the worldwide web even came into being.The world scrambled to get onboard and figure out how to use it for good and bad.  And now, in this time frame, it would have been nearly impossible to navigate business, education, purchasing, transportation, and communication during pandemic lockdowns were it not for the awesome gift of the internet (thank you, Al Gore). I think, though, that we need to make sure to see it as a tool, not a way of life. There was a time long ago and far away that our telephones were stuck on a wall and were the only way to talk to someone not in the room, and we had to write actual letters and mail them to people. 

I am not in the business of telling people what choices to make about screen time and dependency on social media. I will not be a Judgy McJudgerson if you want to spend all day working and playing on the web. But maybe it IS time for all of us to think about whether it is a TOOL for us, or whether we are completely dependent on it.  The blackout this week didn’t interfere much with my life (Twitter was very entertaining that day). But it did make me think about how I would handle it if all the major sites were down for days or weeks. What might that look like and how would we all cope? 

None of this keeps me up at night, by the way. At night I’m too busy worrying whether or not I remembered to move the clothes to the dryer or did I pay the invoice from our pest control provider. But it is food for thought. Where do we put our trust and confidence?  What do our relationships look like without an online presence? Could we do what we do in the day to day without our internet ties?

I think I’ll power down and head outside for awhile. Maybe I’ll start a new book with actual pages. I might even use a pen and paper to write my next blog post. Maybe I’ll even phone a friend (probably not). I’m not expecting everyone to jump in on my tiny revolution, but if you want to join me, send me a tweet or IG chat or Messenger message…..oh wait……nevermind.