Skype had some technical difficulties today. So far, they've been mostly down for 10 hours. A couple weeks ago, Tumblr was down for two days straight.
When things go wrong, people make a stink. And quickly. While it's reasonable to be upset when our favorite websites go down, people often overreact. Some run their mouth about how angry they are; others threaten to move to a competing service. I find the sense of entitlement that people claim, to be both comical and depressing at the same time.Here are a few tweets about Skype I found on a quick search:
Clearly no one has broken the news to these people that they are NOT the most important person in the world. The fact is, it's not like the people behind these websites want their sites to go down. Downtime sucks, but it can happen to anyone. Behind these faceless websites are people who devote their lives into making the products you love. And guess what? They hate downtime more than you do.
So the next time your favorite online service goes down, here's what I propose: Go outside, get some fresh air, and realize that a few years ago, this awesome technology that you rely on didn't even exist. We are blessed to live in an age where we can communicate with people across the world in realtime. Our grandparents would have killed for that.
As hard as we try, things will never be perfect. So instead of just complaining, let's try to look on the bright side once in a while.