Millions of Twitter and Facebook users unexpectedly regained temporary control of their lives as the result of a distribute denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that brought traffic on these sites to a standstill. Although the attacks were apparently targeting one man, a Georgian activist, known by the online handle Cyxymu, who uses blogs and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to express views related to the tensions between Russia and Georgia, the end result was millions of - at first - disgruntled users. It didn't take long for for them to realize that a major paradigm shift had occurred.
With this new windfall of freedom, Facebook's "Friends," and users of Twitter, "Tweeters" as they are often called, suddenly realized that not only were their lives not over but were actually enhances by the situation. Johnny Rockpile of Sacramento, California expressed his joy at the discovery this way: "I didn't think it was possible to sit down and have a drink with my friends without telling my three followers what I was doing. But now, my real friends and I can talk to each other about sports and our girlfriends without having to use my thumbs. Wow! Who knew?"
Although businesses which rely upon Twitter's network for the distribution to clients were severely affected by the attacks, economists agreed that most of these businesses weren't making any money anyway, so the impact was largely minor on the economy in general with several industry leaders admitting that maybe they will now look for real jobs that make meanful contributions to society. Donny Draxton of Colorado admitted as much by explaining that he really only started his "Follow This Dollar Bill," online business site as a way to "spend less time with his family and more 'garage time.' It was working out great until this happened, although I spent more on beer than I ever did on buying that used server and a couple of USB cables."
Perhaps the greatest beneficiaries, especially in this troubling economy, were IT professionals, who suddenly experienced a boon in what has been a lackluster business cycle. Although PC sales have been slow, internet security specialist have been busier than ever and the Twitter/Facebook attacks have done nothing but bolster the growing demand to ensure that our "friend requests" never slow down. Entrepreneurially enclined programmers now realize that by dividing their time between creating these attacks and by then resolving them, they'll now be able to ride out this economic downturn until the next boom cycle arrives.
One unfortunate side affect has been the renewed use of actual cell phone calls, along with the annoying "ring tones" and one-sided conversions, many of them loud beyond disbelief, that often accompany them. This trend is deemed temporary and is expected to return to a "honey, can you bring home some milk" traffic pattern immediately following Twitter and Facebook regaining full use of their networks.
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