(WTTW News)

Amazon’s cloud computing technology experienced major technical difficulties Tuesday, and brought half the world to a halt — or at least it felt that way to clients and consumers reliant on applications or services such as Alexa, Amazon Prime Video, Ring and Canvas.

As of mid-afternoon,Amazon Web Serviceswas reporting continued “error rates” for multiple services in its eastern U.S. region, with no ETA for full recovery.

Social media had a field day with the outages, with some posters expressing mock rage at their inability to so much as turn off light bulbs without Alexa’s help. Others noted, ominously, how dependent people have unwittingly become on the services of a single company.

Less amused were people attempting to access services such as Canvas, a web-based online learning management system used by universities and institutions. The outage also took out banking call centers andRingsecurity cameras.

im in bed to take a nap and i can't turn off my bedroom lights because amazon alexa is down

truly a nightmare of the future

— sickIer (Taylor's Version) (@urdum4replying) December 7, 2021

We are aware of a service interruption impacting Ring. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding. Please check for updates here: https://t.co/eIn9C666kV.

— Ring (@ring) December 7, 2021

Contact Patty Wetli:@pattywetli| (773) 509-5623 |[email protected]