So this morning I woke up, came to the office and did the usual morning routine. Set down my things, turned on the computer, grabbed my notes and work from the previous day along with my appointment calendar, went to the break room for my instant coffee and came back to log in to e-mail, etc. Then suddenly, my morning routine came to a screeching hault. Uh oh.
Twitter is down.
My morning immediately turned upside down. How could Twitter be down? What could be wrong? Will it be fixed? When will it come back on? Maybe someone’s talking about it on Facebook. I log in. You’re kidding me. Facebook’s lagging behind. I call my coworkers. Is Twitter working for you? How about Facebook? Really? How could this be happening to my lovely Thursday morning? What have I done to deserve this mess? Ugh.
Then I come to find (after much Googling) that Twitter was trying to overcome a “denial of service.” No clue what that means. Let’s Wikipedia it. Done. Now what? Just wait, I guess. So I wait and wait, and wait some more. I attempt to continue with my morning workday routine…
After my gazillionth attempt many hours later, SUCCESS! I am logged in. Phew!
Looking back on this, it seems a bit silly. Sure, let’s face it. I am outrageously dependent on the Internet and social media. They have transformed our lives (and our mornings for that matter). The way we work today is completely different than the way our parents worked when they were our age. The workplace has changed.
The best part of all of this is that I wasn’t alone. Twitter wasn’t functioning at 8:30 a.m. and so many of my colleagues (more than I can count on my fingers and toes) already knew it. Participating in social media has not only become part of the everyday routine but has become widely accepted by the corporate environment. It’s a function that is simply expected. Are you tweeting? You should be. Trust me. It goes quite well with instant coffee.
- L
