How Kenyans were affected by WhatsApp outage
Technology has made life easier.
But then, technology has also transformed humanity into a form of slavery where life is not just the same without it.
Recently, there was an outage that affected three social media applications namely Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp all of which are owned by US billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.
Normal service was resumed a couple of hours later but the outage is likely to have affected millions of Kenyans. Including;
1. Campus students – Students rely on WhatsApp to communicate with their teachers and colleagues. Others form discussion groups, file assignments, and engage in other aspects of their learning and social life. The outage of this platform is, thus, likely to have sent many students and lecturers into panic mode.
2. Matanga group– Whatsapp has evolved into a medium of offerings and contributions. Social gatherings have reduced since the onset of the pandemic, and Kenyans have elected to help and aid their needy loved ones through Whatsapp with millions of shillings contributed. The downtime at WhatsApp is likely to have affected such engagements.
3. Baby showers – Ladies have been known to plan and contribute for baby showers through Whatsapp groups, even as they discuss the costs and logistics of the event. This is normally done over a period of time, and there were genuine worries of such information getting lost during the outage.
4. Influencers – Celebrities have embraced selling and promoting themselves and products and services for brands at a cost. In so doing they mostly apply social media usage to get the job done. With the highly influential application not operating, many influencers were left frustrated.
5. Business dealers/work – Businesses across Kenya have adopted the use of social media, more so Whatsapp in a bid to improve sales and marketing. Many jobs as well have a Whatsapp group where they share timely updates and information on a daily basis. With Whatsapp down, a lot was missed.