When Facebook crashed for 14 hours, 911 was inundated with calls from millions of panic-stricken people. This was an emergency on an unprecedented, incomprehensible scale.

Their lives came to a complete, instant standstill. All they lived for had been taken away from them.

Thank God I am not a screenager.

Other stories by Barry O’Farrell appear in Cyclamens & Swords, A Story In 100 Words and of course here at 50 Word Stories.