#Here’s what people did during Facebook, Instagram outage

Time to read a book!

With Facebook and Instagram down for some six hours on Monday, social media users turned to more old-school activities.

People reported reading, reconnecting with friends and cleaning or doing other chores as they were unable to post or scroll through the popular apps during the rare lengthy disruption.

“Back to the old fashioned book reading as I’d normally scroll through Facebook at this time of night …quite refreshing to change that habit … haven’t read a book for ages!!,” one person wrote on Twitter.

“Let’s take this opportunity to assume that Facebook and instagram are permanently dead,” another added. “The books waiting to be read on my bookcase would massively appreciate that.”

Some noted that the outage had made them realize how much time they actually devoted to the social media sites.

“Instagram being down made me realize how much I am on Instagram on a daily,” one user said.

“My girl finally asked me about my day… Instagram needs to be down more often,” another joked.

The disruption, which also affected WhatsApp, Messenger, and Oculus VR, began around 11:40 a.m.. Service slowly started returning for some users at around 6 p.m.

Twitter chimed in on the company’s main account with “hello literally everyone,” as jokes and memes about the outage flooded the site.

“Whatsapp, instagram and facebook are still not working, its been like that for a whole day!! Tf am I supposed to do now?,” one person wrote.

While many turned to Twitter or other sites, including TikTok, Telegram and Snapchat, those who rely on Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp as their primary modes of communication were left in the dark.

“They don’t know how to contact the people in their lives without it,” Rachel Tobac, a hacker and CEO of SocialProof Security, told The Associated Press.

Those who use the social media giants to run their businesses were also out of luck.

“The outage today is frustrating financially,” Kendall Ross, owner of a knitwear brand called Knit That in Oklahoma City, told the AP.

Ross said that all of his website traffic comes directly from Instagram, where he has 32,000 followers. The outage “was a huge awakening that social media controls so much of my success in business,” he said.

With Post wires