Refreshing and refreshing (Instagram, Facebook, and Whatsapp), yet nothing will load. On October 4, 2021, many noticed the Facebook shutdown that lasted for more than six hours. And up until this day many probably didn’t realize how much users rely on these apps.

Scrolling through TikTok, many teenage users were complaining about the shutdown,“Is anyone else’s Instagram not working?” users questioned. Even one girl said, “I didn’t realize how much I checked Instagram until today.” For lots of people, mostly teenagers, these apps are the whole internet for them. 

More investigation into the shutdown after the app was down for about six hours revealed that it was due to losing internet connectivity when they updated their network configurations. There was no quick fix to this problem, after all we are talking about the three biggest apps in the world. Facebook took to Twitter and tweeted around 6:30pm,  “To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we’re sorry.” They then stated,  “We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us.”

All in all,  the shutdown was really a wake up call for all people realizing how much we all rely on these apps just for pure entertainment, and Mr. David, the Facebook head of safety, couldn’t have said it any better when he stated,  “When WhatsApp or Facebook (Instagram) are down, we all go down.”