‘I’m having a great day’: AWS outage offers some a brief glimpse of a tech-free existence

Workers were sent home, exams were delayed, coffee machines had to be turned on manually and language app users feared their hard-won progress was lost as a result of the global outage of Amazon Web Services on Monday, as some made light of their briefly tech-free existence. A glitch in the AWS cloud computing service brought down apps and websites for millions of users around the world affecting more than 2,000 companies, including Snapchat, Roblox, Signal and language app Duolingo as well as a host of Amazon-owned operations. Many of the sites were restored after a few hours, but some experienced persistent problems throughout the day. By Monday evening, Amazon said all of its cloud services had “returned to normal operations”. But amid the chaos affecting vital services around the world, some more unexpected consequences arose. Amazon workers posted videos of themselves on TikTok relishing a slower work day, with some dancing in quiet warehouses, while others told CNN they had been sent home. “Working for Amazon Flex we’ve been sent home due to their systems not being able to check us in or release us with pay. Because of this outage there’s no telling if the 80 of us here are going to be paid,” James from Texas told the network. Tiffini in Florida said she was hoping to start her Amazon delivery route at 3.30am but the systems were down. “I submitted a ticket but there has been no confirmation that we will get paid for the blocks that we missed due to Amazon’s system issues this morning.” Other social media users described facing delays to medical and vet appointments, while some customers using Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, faced issues with their smart homes. “I use Alexa-enabled smart plugs to control the lamps in my room,” Christina, who uses crutches to get around, told CNN. “During the outage my smart plugs became unresponsive. Before I realised why the plug wasn’t working, I tried unsuccessfully to reset one of them. Now I can’t get it to work at all.” Some Alexa users, however, were quick to make light of the outage. “Due to the Amazon outage, Alexa wasn’t working this morning, so I had to stumble out of bed in the dark, find my way to the kitchen, and turn the coffee-maker on MANUALLY. I can’t live like this. You guys go on without me,” one X user posted. “I had to turn on my light by hand without Alexa’s help. Rough start to the day,” another posted to Reddit. Some avid users of Duolingo, which records how many days in a row a customer has practised, known as “streaks”, were beside themselves with anxiety about their progress. Some threatened to “riot” if their streak was lost, others complained their 900+ day streak had reset to zero, while one poster on X took aim at Amazon’s founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos. “If I lose my 1,300-day Duolingo streak because of the pissing AWS [Amazon Web Services] outage, I will personally throw an egg at Bezos’ bald head.” Duolingo reassured customers on Tuesday their streaks would be safe. For some, meanwhile, the outage of web services such as Canvas – an education tool – was cause for celebration. “Can’t grade on Canvas because Amazon Web Services is experiencing an outage. I love not being able to do my job lol,” wrote one BlueSky user. “My midterms are inaccessible,” wrote a Reddit user. “I’m having a great day.”