Ten years from now, what will you say when you’re asked the question – “where were you the night of the Instagram blackout?”
You’d think after the eighteen months we’ve all had, we’d take a few hours of being without social media in our stride. But no, it would appear we all lost our minds. Some fervently binged Squid Game and waited for the storm to pass. Some researched the lost art of pigeon carrying as a way to send out memes. Some sheepishly dusted off their Twitter passwords and logged into the app for the first time since 2012. Luckily, the Twitter vets were on hand to provide the top drawer commentary one needs in a crisis, and we all appear to have made it out unscathed. Here are some of our highlights:
People you went to school with logging in to their dormant Twitter account now that Instagrams down. pic.twitter.com/UsWkcZB9Px
— Michael Fry (@BigDirtyFry) October 4, 2021
The vibe was very this.
Leaving work early cause Instagram is down and I’m not gonna spend half an hour hiding in the jacks on LinkedIn like
— spochadóir (@spochadoir) October 4, 2021
Some had the appropriate response for a crisis.
All the attractive Instagram people have been forced on to Twitter where I, an ugly little goblin man, rule with an iron fist x
— ᴾᴬᵁᴸᴰᴼᶜᴷ ˣ (@PaulDock93) October 4, 2021
As the Insta huns hastily logged on, they were greeted by the long standing rulers of Twitter.
The internet in our apartment is so bad that I can never tell when any social media app is down I just always presume its our connection hahaha
— 🐝 (@livelaughcryxo) October 4, 2021
In fairness, this was also me for the first hour or so.
WhatsApp is down? Aren’t we all mate, aren’t we all
— Laura (@fairycakes) October 4, 2021
Ahhh sure isn’t this it.
Twitter never goes down because it's powered primarily by negative energy
— Ciara | Ciaraíoch 🎨 (@Ciaraioch) October 4, 2021
The fact of the matter.
God help us if there’s a photogenic sunset tonight.
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) October 4, 2021
At 21:12, panic started to set in.
https://twitter.com/hollyshortall/status/1445105565051625482?s=20
Meanwhile, the staff at Facebook were taking a deserved break.
very happy that I invested all my mental energy in tweets instead of being a good friend on whatsapp or being attractive and having an interesting life/aesthetic on instagram.
— Alan (@alan_maguire) October 4, 2021
Those of us who’ve dedicated our life to funny tweets remained unfazed.
“Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. How easily those three have gone down is nothing short of a disgrace. They've embarrassed themselves today.” pic.twitter.com/281StnL11J
— Jonny Sharples (@JonnyGabriel) October 4, 2021
This came just as we were starting to really miss Roy’s wholesome Dad insta updates.
Twitter anocht: pic.twitter.com/Scho3mSd6s
— TG4 (@TG4TV) October 4, 2021
Needless to say, TG4 was on it with the content.
me repeatedly checking Instagram and seeing the same three posts (an Adobe ad, a Laura Whitmore selfie, an English girl I met once on holidays in Sri Lanka having a coffee) pic.twitter.com/UrKKN55YIL
— ⭐ amy o'connor ⭐ (@amyohconnor) October 4, 2021
As the night continued, we still found ourselves in a state of disbelief.
Someone sent me a Call Me. This has gone too far
— Shane Beatty 🎙️ (@ShaneBeattyNews) October 4, 2021
But this was where we had to draw the line.
My post on Facebook 😬 pic.twitter.com/JvkvYUjIak
— stevo (@teamdavey180) October 4, 2021
Luckily, we got to the bottom of it in the end.
Did you make it through the night? Have your iMessages never seen so much action? Thankfully, we’re out the other side of it now, and let’s provisionally say that if Twitter goes down, we’ll all meet on the Revolut app and have a hooley.
Header image via Twitter/javeed_mahsood
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