It’s every digi dweller’s worst nightmare – seeing the dreaded ‘unexpected login’ email from Instagram. But what’s even worse is when that’s followed by ‘your password has been changed’ and ‘your email address was removed’. We’d just been for a lovely meal at Finkle & Green, then everything just went to pot. Yes, my Instagram account was well and truly hacked recently, and the whole ordeal was a total nightmare. From the moment I realised what was going on, to the frantic scramble to try and get back in, to the long slog of waiting for Instagram support to get back to me, it was horrible.
Now I’m so pleased to say that I’ve been one of the lucky ones and I finally got back into the account after six weeks. But despite the whole awfulness of it, the experience has actually taught me a few things that I want to share with you all.
1. Things like this can happen to even the most savvy people
As someone who has grown up in the rise of the digital world, and loves learning and being a part of it, I thought something like this would never happen to me. But it just goes to show that hackers are clever and are figuring out ways to get to people all the time. They hacked into someone else’s account, someone that is trustworthy and friendly, and messaged me through them. I believed I was talking to the original account holder, so one dodgy link later and they’d secured my account too.
And it’s not just me that this happened too, because another digitally savvy person messaged me to say the exact same thing happened to them. I’ve learned that no matter how much learning you do and how much you think you know, it only takes one slip up.
2. Develop a posting style and voice
Thankfully, I don’t think there were too many people who were scammed into buying bitcoin or handing over links to my hackers (although there were some and I feel incredibly guilty about it). And this is partly down to the way they communicated. I use a certain font in all my Instagram stories, I like using using images as backgrounds with a colour overlay, and I love a gif or two. If I message someone, I have a certain voice and I’m a fiend for an exclamation mark. My hackers didn’t make the effort to fit with any of these things, so a lot of people messaged me saying they knew it wasn’t me on my original account because none of it looked or sounded like me. There’s something to be said for developing a style!
3. I had been a slave to the numbers
Real talk time. Before the hacking, I was on a serious downer with Instagram. It was where the main bulk of my audience was, but my engagement was ridiculously down. No matter what I posted, nothing was gaining traction. It was making me miserable! And when I got hacked, I wondered whether it was a sign to just stop. I was sick of feeling not good enough because my posts weren’t getting likes and comparing myself to everyone else. The thought of having to start from scratch made me feel sick and I wasn’t even sure if I wanted the account back. I basically just wanted to quit Instagram entirely.
But then I thought about how much I love taking photos, and making videos and guides, and I reframed the way I looked at my content. It was about time I started making things because I enjoyed it, rather than being a slave to the numbers and trying to get likes. And so that’s what I vow to do going forward. Life is too short to try and get gratification on social media, so expect more ‘real’ stuff!
4. Community is everything
I’m so lucky that I’ve developed such a gorgeous community on Instagram. From the small business owners, to the restauranteurs, to other content creators, and people who simply want to see my posts – everyone is just lush. So when it happened, yes, my follower count dropped quite quickly, but it’s completely understandable why. But a lot of people reached out in other ways – via Twitter, to my personal Instagram account, through my Northernist Facebook page – to rally around and show support. There were people who researched how to get through to Instagram support, those who wanted to let me know what was being posted and messaged, and those who simply checked in on me to see how I was feeling. And every single one was totally appreciated. I love you guys!
5. Time off social media is good for you
I’m awful for mindless scrolling. I just can’t help it! If I’m not scrolling, I feel out of the loop or like I’m not doing enough to stay in people’s minds. But with Instagram taken away from me, the scrolling completely slowed down. I read a book in two days and I can’t even remember the last time I did that. I spent more time at the gym, which was amazing for my mental wellbeing. I painted a pennant and stuck all my loose pin badges to it. I did a lot of things that I wouldn’t have done if I was just scrolling and it felt great. The whole experience definitely showed me that it’s good to put down the phone for a bit.
After this whole debacle, I’m super cautious of everything and determined to never let it happen again. If you can take anything away from this post, let it be this – make sure two factor authentication is on, don’t click links without checking their legitimacy, don’t respond to people if their usernames or profiles don’t look right, and don’t send screenshots of your details to anyone.
Let’s crack down on this together!
