Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram — down (again)

UPDATE: As of around 6 am PT, 9 am ET — some 2 hours after the outages were first reported — Facebook services seem to be back up and running normally.

If something happens and you can't social it, did it really occur? Back in September, parts of the world found out the frustrating answer to that — and took to Twitter to savagely complain about it. Now, half a year later, that's the Zen koan everyone is mulling once again as Facebook services from Facebook itself to Messenger to Instagram to WhatsApp are failing to send, receive, or function in any meaningful way.

No word yet on what's wrong, what bug or problem happened, what issue or failure is persisting, just that people who want to chat or post can't chat or post. Last time, after a day or so of very odd silence, we learned only that server configuration was at fault. Cryptic much?

Hey, maybe after all the controversies, even the internet doesn't want to be using Facebook anymore? Ouch. Harsh. Yeah. But it's not like the company is putting much effort into clarity, transparency, and trust building, is it?

It may not be everywhere. It may not be for everyone. But enough people are complaining that, if you were worried it was just you, rest easy. You're not alone in your social frustrations right now.

If your favorite social service is down, let us know which one. And, when it starts working again for you, well, let us know that too.

Meanwhile, hold to hope, and go talk to someone IRL if you absolutely have to.