Facebook will give employees super slow Internet speeds every Tuesday to better understand markets like India

Facebook is launching a new initiative called "2G Tuesdays" that will give all employees an opportunity to see what using the app with an incredibly slow connection feels like and help close the "empathy gap" between Silicon Valley and emerging markets. For most people, the stark differences will likely be jarring. Engineering director Tom Alison remembers the first time he opened Facebook on a phone with a 2G connection. "I felt like, 'Whoa!'" Alison said. "It definitely tested my patience -- it felt like parts of the product were just broken." Although most people with smartphones in the US use faster 3G or even 4G connections, millions of people all over the world are coming online for the first time with 2G. With that kind of connection, a webpage can take over 2 minutes to load.