Supposedly Facebook is down for as-yet undetermined reasons. It's something to do with their DNS, or something to do with their servers… but something interesting appears to be going on.
Apparently employees can't get into the building to sort stuff out either, suggesting some sort of coordinated attack might be going on — but at the same time, things like this have happened before and turned out to not be anything worthwhile. And the Internet is, of course, rife with speculation, "my uncle works at Facebook" stories, clickbait and, of course, outright lies, so the only people who can really say what is actually happening right now are the people who are actively involved.
What's interesting is how many people are seemingly happy to say what a negative influence Facebook has been on society at large. While there are undoubtedly good things about Facebook as a means of communication, the way it has grown and expanded well beyond its original remit has, I agree, not been a great thing. And the other social media sites under its umbrella are no better; Instagram in particular is a gross haven of "influencers" who think fame and fortune will come to them if they pout at the camera enough and shill whatever makeup brand they have in their inbox this week.
I must confess, I don't doubt that the actual obliteration of Facebook, however, unlikely, would be very interesting to watch happen. It would cause a certain amount of chaos, I'm sure — but I think it would also open a lot of people's eyes as to the risks of being too free and easy with your information online. At this point I have to wonder that if Facebook did go up in flames… would something come in to take its place, or would people have had enough? I suspect the former; today's society is literally addicted to social media, and you never can really predict what the "next big thing" will be.
More realistically, though, I suspect this will be all over by tomorrow morning, we'll get absolutely no explanation whatsoever as to what happened, and xXLiLShInYGal69Xx will go back to shooting selfies of herself on Instagram in the hope of securing a brand deal so lucrative, she'll never have to find an actual job.
We'll see, I guess. Interesting times!
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