On January 4, 2021, The New York Times published an article that reported that the Slack app, a messaging service and communication tool for thousands of student-run organizations, had been restored after the messaging system was broken for hours. According to The New York Times, Slack’s outage caused many users to shift to Google and Zoom tools for communication. Obviously, Slack officials were unhappy about this, but they believe that their ten million loyal users will come back after the app’s short-lived outage.

Slack Technologies is a software company. In fact, Slack is also the name of the software behind Slack. Recently, Slack Technologies sold their company to Salesforce for $27.7 Billion USD. Therefore, Salesforce now owns the software and technology behind Slack. One should keep in mind that the use of Slack is not open source technology. This means that the app developers have not released the code behind slack to the public. In truth, Slack uses the internet in several ways. For example, the messages, audio files, and other items that are sent through Slack rely on the internet.

Users of Slack should protect their user ID and password for privacy and security reasons. The app does a great deal to protect this information, but the user must be wise to keep their personal information and login credentials safe via safe, complex passwords.

Even though some opponents of Slack and technology the workplace may argue that the workplace has become too “digitized,” the reality is that the world is heading in a computer-geared direction and such people will have to use technology whether they would like to or not. Salesforce’s Slack has most certainly had a positive impact on society. Twenty-first century workers, especially during a global pandemic, need to be able to communicate virtually, so, Slack, a virtual messaging and communication tool, is quite useful during these trying times. Furthermore, Slack allows members of an organization to have private chats in channels and group chats, something that makes this app quite unique. Finally, the Slack app has a young, millennial feel to it (with hashtags and emoji reactions), so the app will appeal to a younger audience; after all, no one has the time to write emails anymore, right? Student audiences, who use slack for their non-profits, will use technology to their benefit and to the benefit of society at large.