Facebook asked me to log in last night. That’s unusual because I am usually logged in. Anyway, I tried and it did not work. Alright, maybe I had a typo error in my password. I tried again and clicked the “reveal password” icon but it did not work again.
Now, I was getting worried. Has my account been hacked? Have I accidentally revealed my password to hackers? Panic set in and I began to think of how to report this. But how could I do so if I could not even access Facebook?
I even tried rebooting the phone and activating the Facebook app as well. That didn’t work either.
Another thought came to mind. Let’s check if I received any mobile or email notification on attempted log-ins. There were none. Zero. Now, it’s really worrying.
A thought came to mind. What about checking with Downdetector? I quickly went to that site and submitted a report.
Then, I scrolled down and was relieved by the comments. I wasn’t alone. Many others were facing similar issues. Some shared the same concern that I had — that we have been hacked.
That prompted me to check further. Has any media caught wind of this and written about the outage?
Thankfully, there were several articles reporting that not just Facebook but Instagram and Threads were down. Now, my panic was replaced by relief. I was truly not alone. Millions of others were facing the same problem.
A couple of hours later. I tried accessing again. And Facebook was up. It works as normal. That was when I saw tons of posts, including many humourous ones of how people felt when they could not access the social media site.
Even X (formerly Twitter) chief Elon Musk joined in and took a poke at his rival.
And Musk had reason to do so. Andy Stone of Facebook posted on X on Facebook being down due to technical issues and has since been restored.
Lessons learnt are:
- Don’t panic.
- Check with news reports.
- Check with Downdetector.
- Check other social media platforms (such as X).
- Check with friends.
When none of these works, then start panicking. Just kidding. Hold steady. Just wait and the social media site will be up again. Meanwhile, enjoy the downtime and talk to a real person.
101reasons.blog 