A MASSIVE outage took down Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger a few days ago and lasted six hours before services resumed.
Most of us thought we had run out of data. Others even thought their phones had ceased working.
Many users felt the impact on their businesses as many people use these platforms as their marketplace.
With no access to these sites, people’s businesses were on complete shutdown.
This short period exposed how over-reliant we are on Western products and the dangers of having all our eggs in one basket.
I had friends who were in panic mode, with the belief that even their relationships would not survive the blackout period.
Others felt lost for not having anything to do as they were used to browsing various platforms literally wasting time on non-productive activities.
It had me thinking that maybe it was high time Africans develop their own platforms and not solely depend on the West.
Nations like China have their own systems that are efficient and do not operate on the mercy of outsiders.
And we should not be so dependent on social media to the detriment of personal and physical relationships.
Elizabeth Mujaka,
Waterfalls