The day social media went away

DR ASHA PEMBERTON

teenhealth.tt@gmail.com

It was around midday of Monday past, when we all heard a collective gasp. Fingers swiped… and swiped again; but alas no number of refreshes or reboots would solve it. Social media and instant messaging apps were simply not working. I, like most of us questioned whether wifi servers were down, if the phone needed rebooting or even blamed the recent heavy rains for an interruption on internet services. People became slightly anxious and even agitated at the fact that messages or updates were being missed. Others painstakingly restarted their phones again and again, to no avail. The fear of missing out, is real. We have come to rely heavily on social media and instant messaging to connect or at least feel connected to people around us. Those few hours on Monday demonstrated how much social media and online connection have become embedded in our day-to-day lives.

In the hours of “blackout” it was quite interesting to note the effort (or lack thereof) that subsequently went into communicating. Many post-event analysts have now noted the extent to which people in developing nations, such as Trinidad and Tobago, rely on Facebook, Instagram and especially WhatsApp for their free instant messaging features. Those hours of disruption left many people literally anxious and oddly alone as they were unable to send jokes, check in on new (or fake-news) updates or just mindlessly scroll to pass time. Those hours demonstrated exactly how often we engage with social media, largely for no real reason.

This led me to conduct a small and completely informal survey of the impact of the disruption on some adolescents and adults in my circles. Interestingly, most young people – defined as those ten to 25years old – quickly moved to another mechanism or app for communicating. Some made regular phone calls, others used email, Twitter or less popular instant messaging apps like Google hangouts. Young people who wanted to connect, to share and to exchange their usual daily doses of laughs, found a way to do so. The broken Facebook giant did not leave them behind.

Interestingly, among the more mature people with whom I spoke, many just settled with the notion that WhatsApp was not working and nothing could be done. Several adults shared with me that although they knew they could make a phone call to check in with a partner or conduct other business, it simply felt like too much effort or expense to do so. As if somehow the ultra-convenience of these apps has served to paralyse our real-time communication abilities. Finally, a small but resolute group noted that they felt “refreshed” and “at ease” when they recognised that they could disconnect for a few hours from the social media vortex. Even fewer reported that they did not notice the disruption, but oddly took the time to check their profiles when the services resumed.

As we reflect on the past week, it is perhaps worth asking ourselves, how those hours “offline” affected us. Did you even notice? Were you so connected and engrossed in your tangible life, that you did not realise that the vortex of social media was unavailable? Were you anxious? Did you somehow feel scared, lonely or panicked that something could be happening, that you were missing out on? Are you a business owner, reliant on instant messaging features to contact clients and confirm transactions? Are you too reliant? Or were you able to take time and make the effort to contact or communicate with people you needed to during those times using a different medium? Every experience in life provides an opportunity for us to learn and grow. Let us reflect on the role of social media in our lives and ways in which we can be more mindful of our communication.