I can’t think of a single person who does’t mind when their internet goes haywire, or when one of their top sites experiences an outage.  Whenever Facebook goes down, you can bet I will hear anguished screams coming from nearby houses in my neighborhood.  For those whom I am luckily out of hearing distance, I can see their vented anger take the form of angry tweets, which usually forces me to either angrily vent back at them, or send them the “First World Problems” video for their commiseration.

However, for some LA residents, Facebook being down apparently required immediate and drastic action.  So they did what anyone else would likely do when confronted with an emergency situation that was out of their hands: they called the cops.  In response, Sgt. Burton Brink via @LASDBrink tweeted that “Facebook is not a Law Enforcement issue, please don’t call us about it being down.”

Amazingly, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.  A Connecticut resident apparently dialed 911 (intentionally) when a cable outage interrupted their viewing of the show “Breaking Bad.”

Aside from the initially comical nature of a story like this, it is also a testimony to the high value that individuals place on their social media accounts and being kept informed of all the trends in today’s society.  While the world will likely (and hopefully) not end the next time Facebook shuts down, it is good to keep yourself spread out over other networks, so your social avenues and networks are diversified in such a way that one short outage won’t ruin your work or means of communication.  

It isn’t quite an emergency situation, but when people today feel cut-off from the world, they tend to equate it to feelings of helplessness and confusion.  The constant flow of information, trends, and accessible communication through social media is an integral part of people’s lives, and as such, any sudden change in a major social media network will undoubtedly have influence and impact on surrounding events.  

Now, I am not suggesting that you to call the police when your favorite social media site goes down.  If you are really stuck on Facebook and each outages is a minor heart attack for you, then take a nap until the void in your social life is once again restored, and you can go back to your socializing.  All without having to involve the police.   

Source: CNN