A tragic thing happened to me this week. Got your tissues handy?
My Instagram account was hacked!!!
And Liam Neeson is too busy filming a movie to come get it back for me.
“How did that happen?” you may ask. (My Instagram getting hacked, not Liam Neeson being, selfishly, too busy to help me – a necessary distinction, I know!)
Well, frankly it happened because I oh so shamefully fell for a hacking ruse du jour.
I received a DM from an old friend I hadn’t spoken to in a few years, and it said she’d started a clothing line and asked if she could add me to her group so I could see “the product.”
I admit, I instinctively thought the whole thing sounded a wee bit off, but certainly didn’t foresee being hacked as a result of clicking on a simple link… #gullible #whoopsydaisy
So, being the loyal, encouraging, feeling-slightly-guilty-I-had-lost-touch-with-her friend that I am, I replied with an enthusiastic, though very naïve, “Of course!”
With suspicious swiftness, a link was sent to my phone with instructions to email that link to my “friend’s” email address, and bada bing bada boom, the hacker had all he or she needed to reset my Instagram password and repurpose my writing-meme-filled account for his or her insanely obvious Bitcoin scam.
Thankfully, I have very savvy friends who sensed foul play was afoot, because my phone was instantly inundated with “Oh my gosh, your account was hacked!” messages, but sadly, none of them have Liam Neeson-esque skills…
After an evening spent trying to reclaim my account, neither my husband nor I had any success, mainly because I don’t have any close-up photos on my account with which Instagram could verify my identity using their “Video Selfie” feature, which, according to YouTube tutorials, is the surefire way to have one’s account returned to them. I’ve asked my friends to report the hijacked account, so we shall see if the Instagram overlords see them and take action. I have a feeling they don’t care too much about us peasants, especially us peasants who are silly (because dumb is too strong a word?) enough to virtually (literally, virtually) hand over their accounts to hackers.
Anyway, the reason I’m particularly upset is because of the family photos I had stored in the Story archives. Always, for the sake of privacy, whenever I would post a photo of one of my children out and about somewhere, I would obscure their faces by covering them up with a random emoji. Now, it pains me to know some criminal has access to so many personal photos and is using them to pose as me on the Internet. Thankfully, the number of photos is few, and thankfully, I’ve learned a valuable lesson when it comes to Internet safety, i.e., NEVER open even sketchy links!
Lately, I’ve been praying for clarity concerning my Instagram presence, I’ve also been reading Anne of Green Gables and pining for a world without social media, where little girls gaze dreamily out their windows and imagine big, bright, wonderful worlds of romance, beauty, chivalry, and adventure. Where people may have their noses stuck in books, but never in their phones. Where community consists of front porches, church courtyards, restaurants and shops… not digital platforms that have been proven to addict, manipulate, and turn otherwise creative individuals into passive consumers.
The day my account was hacked and seemed, from all appearances, unrecoverable, I couldn’t help thinking that it was meant to be, that is to say, that God allowed it to serve as a plain-as-day answer to my prayer. Other than the unsettling feeling of having my private photos in a stranger’s hands, I have a peace about the hack attack, because, in my heart of hearts, I’ve known all along that I’ve been spending far too much time on Instagram.
The account theft, in conjunction with my envy of Anne Shirley and her friends in Avonlea, has opened my eyes to the denial I was in regarding the plenteous pitfalls of social media, and led me to take inventory of how I spend the precious few spare moments I have in my day as a wife, mother, educator, writer, and sister in Christ. Of course, I do value connecting with readers and fellow writers, but is frequently, and unthinkingly, hopping on social media really necessary for that? Absolutely not. From here on out, I plan to follow these simple rules when it comes to my Instagram use:
- Schedule a time to be on each day (1-2 times max), then set a timer for 5-10 minutes.
- Don’t start the day with it, or any other social media. Use the morning time to be physically and/or mentally active. Set your day up for success through healthy, energizing habits.
- Turn off notifications, aka temptations.
- No phones around friends. Unless there’s something you want to show them on your phone, respect your time with them, and encourage invigorating, stimulating conversation, by keeping your eyes off the screen.