I’m finally caught-up with work so today was a normal workload day! I’m not overwhelmed like I was last week, and I’m getting back into my typical workday routine.
And we made a decision about tagging along with my dad this summer…
…and we’ll do it!
Holy smokes I’m so anxiety-ridden about this.
We’re going to the Amazon rainforest to his bucket-list destination of Kaieteur Falls… It’s famous for being the largest single-drop waterfall on the planet. And the most powerful, by volume.
Kaieteur Falls in southern Guyana
Obviously, I’m scared. The only way to get to it is 1) a 5-day trek through the rainforest, or 2) a small prop plane.
But, if I don’t go with my dad. I’ll never go. And my daughter wants to come with us.
My dad has always been like this. When I was a kid, he was always taking us with him on his travels. And he didn’t go to tourist hot-spots. He liked the destinations that were RARE. I remember one summer when I was in high-school, and he took me to Borneo and left me with villagers who didn’t speak any English for about a week while he went climbing their mountain and caves.
But I never died during any of these adventures. So why would I start dying now, is kinda how I’m looking at it. We should be ok, right?
I also want my daughter to experience this kind of stuff. My dad is the only person I know in real-life that would do these things and go to these places. So if she doesn’t go with him, she might never go in her whole entire life. And I wouldn’t want her to miss out.
A few years ago, my dad actually climbed Mt Everest. He invited me to go as well but I was too busy with work and couldn’t get away. And while I wouldn’t have wanted to climb Mt Everest myself, I wish I had gone with him and I would’ve hung out in Tibet while waiting on him. And I probably would’ve enjoyed exploring Tibet very much. So I always regret it when I DON’T tag along with my dad.
Also, my dad isn’t going to be around forever anymore. It makes me sad thinking about it, and so I want to cram as many activities as I can with him, while it’s still possible.
So wish me luck with this summer trip! I’m going to need it!
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And it’s almost time for me to draw my Q2 winner of my Subscriber Spotlight! The Subscriber Spotlight is a quarterly drawing of my email subscribers where the lucky winner will get a promotional blast of whatever they want (within reason, of course).
The next drawing will occur at the beginning of April 2022 (just a few more days away!) Don’t hesitate to subscribe below to be included in this drawing!
So I’m still upset that I had to go back to work and my real life after being on Spring Break last week, lol.
My work piled up so badly while I was on break that I seriously feel as if I’m being punished for having taken some days off. I even logged-in a few times during my days off to handle some issues that couldn’t wait for my return. This is always the case whenever I’m gone from work and probably a main reason why I rarely do so anymore. So I just work endlessly and stay burned-out.
And then my dad invited me and my daughter to hang out with him in the rainforest of Guyana this summer. (So random, I know!) But there will be absolutely ZERO internet and cell service there so I’ll be totally absent from work 100% for the first time ever and I don’t know if I can do it. Like, can I survive being completely unplugged?
I have to decide this soon so the proper plans can be made, and I don’t know what to do. I think it will be great experience but I’m also so very worried about it.
I’m back from Spring Break and I seriously recommend everyone taking a escape from their daily lives when they can. It’s so valuable for a recharge.
I watched zero news and politics and that was probably the best part of it all! I attribute a large chunk of my mood improvement to that alone. The best!
And I did find the BEST documentary I’ve ever seen in my life. It is a National Geographic movie on DisneyPlus and I recommend it to you all immediately. Especially since they are making a Hollywood version of this (starring Vigo Mortensen and directed by Ron Howard and will win a ton of awards) so you probably want to go check out the REAL story from National Geographic first.
The movie is called “The Rescue” and it’s the true story with actual footage of the Thai Soccer Team rescue when those precious children got trapped in the flooded cave.
Do you all remember when that happened? The news at the time made the event seem impossible. I definitely recall not believing that the kids would survive.
And this documentary reveals what really happened. And you find out that this event was actually 100x more impossible than the news even presented it to be!
I was so proud to be part of the human race watching this. It’s simply good people achieving GREAT things. Together. And they pulled off the impossible.
Power couldn’t do it. Wealth couldn’t do it. Machinery couldn’t do it. Governments couldn’t do it. Just simple good people. That’s it. Amazing.
So definitely check it out when you can. You might need tissues. But totally worth it.
Hi everyone! Just a quick update post to let you all know what I’m up to!
Today my daughter gets to dump her crutches FINALLY! She’s been on crutches for almost 8 weeks now. She still has to use a walking boot however to support her foot, but the best part is that her hands are free! Lol, you don’t realize how burdensome it is to not have hands available to help you while you walk. So today is a good day and we’re super-excited about this. My daughter can fetch her own drinks and snacks again!
So far, except for all the surgery-related pain at first, her foot has been pain-free lately. I’m curious to see if that will keep up once she truly starts walking on her foot again without the support. But for now, it’s really encouraging.
Also, we’re planning her 11 year birthday party too! She wants a glow-in-the-dark dance party, so, that’s what we’re preparing for. The timing couldn’t be better for this. She already missed one school dance a few weeks ago because of her crutches so this party will kinda make-up for that one she missed. I’m happy she gets to play with her friends again, as she hasn’t been able to for a couple months.
And this week is Spring Break week so my daughter and I will be flying to stay at my parents’ house. My parents are pretty awesome and it’s perfect that she’s done with crutches in time for this.
That’s all the news I happen to have for you all. I hope you’ve been doing great and I hope some warmer weather is in store for us all! 🙂
So I’m still very disgruntled that I’ve been ghosted by Instagram.
It’s been 3 weeks now since they’ve deactivated my account without warning. And they won’t respond to any of my attempts to reach them. At this point, I’ve sent them dozens each of emails, forms, and selfie-confirmations, and it doesn’t matter.
What makes me even MORE disgruntled about this whole entire experience, is when I see who actually DOES have an active, lively, and bustling Instagram account.
For example, obvious scammers are all over the place! Like, they don’t even TRY to hide it. C’mon, everyone’s literally “winning” free iPhones multiple times everyday and this is obviously a scam but Instagram isn’t stopping them.
But Instagram stopped ME. And I wasn’t scamming anyone!
Ghosted by Instagram / Image Source: Pepper V.
Another thing that bugs me about Instagram is that they literally have hackers all over the place. Announce on any social media that your Instagram was deactivated without warning and every single hacker out there will reach out to you and try to use your moment of despair and desperation to reveal to them your username/password combos.
You can search for them quite easily on Instagram too. Just search for “hackers” or even #hackers and you have millions to choose from. They advertise themselves quite well. And Instagram isn’t stopping them either.
But Instagram stopped ME.
And another thing! So I manage my daughter’s Instagram account just so I can post her cute pictures and life updates, etc. And 10% of my daughter’s new followers on a DAILY BASIS are older men with 0 photos and THOUSANDS of other children they are following. Of course I block them and report them and don’t allow any interaction with my daughter. But they truly are following thousands of other children. That is not an exaggeration.
So my big public service announcement for all parents out there – make sure to manage or at lease monitor EVERYDAY your children’s Instagram account. This is incredibly important. Because Instagram isn’t stopping older men from interacting with your children.
Ever notice your Instagram account disappear without warning, and you were suddenly no longer allowed to log-in anymore? And you have no idea what happened? This is the post for you then, where you’ll find 8 surprising reasons your Instagram was deactivated.
I’m in this exact situation now where – 2 weeks ago – my Instagram Account was deactivated for “no” reason. At least, it’s not an obvious reason because I’ve reviewed their Community Guidelines and I did not violate any of those. And nobody from Instagram will respond with any reason, so I stand by my claim that there was “NO” reason for my account to be deactivated. I’m still upset about this. But mostly by the fact that they did this to me without warning and are ghosting all my communication attempts.
Because Instagram is ghosting me, I’ve been forced to do my own research. And I’m quite upset at the amount of time I’ve invested researching this on my own because Instagram won’t help me. So Google has been my best friend the last several days. Below are 8 of the most surprising reasons your Instagram was deactivated.
#1 Not Using Your Real Identity
This was my primary worry. We all know that I use an alias online due to issues I’ve had in my past with an online stalker. So my immediate rationale for why my Instagram account was deactivated was because I wasn’t using my real identity. BUT, this is not true for Instagram. I reviewed the Instagram terms and found that alias accounts are fine, as long as nobody is being impersonated or harrassed by it.
But this IS a violation on Facebook, FYI. So if you are like me and using an online alias, make sure to check your Facebook and make alternate plans. I’m planning to use a variation of my real name for Facebook and transfer my alias Page to it, just to make sure I’m protected from this happening to my Facebook account. So please take the same precautions.
So if you are currently following me on Facebook and you notice my Profile Name change, then this is the reason why. I’ll keep the same Profile pic however, so that I leave behind a clue that it is still me.
#2 Not Turning-On Two-Factor Authentication
Did you all know about this?! It’s optional to turn-on two-factor authentication on Instagram. However, if you do not turn it on, then you are vulnerable to hackers and being hacked IS an easy way to trigger a deactivation, making this one of the most common reasons your Instagram was deactivated.
So please double-check right now that your two-factor authentication is turned-on.
#3 Being Spam-ish
Of all the possible reasons your Instagram was deactivated, then this is the trap that I most likely fell into without realizing it. Apparently, it’s considered spam to exceed some behavioral limits on Instagram. And by behavioral limits, I mean actions such as following people, unfollowing people, liking posts, leaving comments, etc. But Instagram doesn’t actually notify you if you are approaching these limits, so you don’t have the opportunity to correct yourself. Some of the limits that I was able to find posted online are:
a maximum number of likes per hour: 60
a maximum number of comments per hour: 60
a maximum number of follows per hour: 60
a maximum number of messages per hour: 60
If these limits are true, it’s very possible that I did more than 60 likes in an hour. Honestly, I could do that in less than 2 minutes. It’s so easy when you’re scrolling and see so many pretty pictures. So this is what I think trapped me, if anything.
But the right thing to do in this situation if Instagram wanted me to change some behavior, would be to simply send me a notice of some sort (a pop-up, a notification, an email, etc) to inform me of the behavior I should change. Or block me from that action until the timeout is over. I would’ve gladly changed this behavior if I was aware of it. But it’s not right to straightaway deactivate someone’s account without warning instead.
#4 User Complaints
If enough users reported against me, or a single user reported against me multiple times, then Instagram can deactivate the account without warning. But since Instagram won’t notify you of any reports made against you, then you don’t have the opportunity to change your behavior. And also, someone might’ve just been acting out a grudge too. If that’s the case, then people can be victimized by losing their accounts when they cross someone who is very disgruntled.
I don’t believe that I’ve angered anyone enough to motivate them to do this to me, but I can’t rule it out.
#5 Logging in from Multiple Devices and IP Addresses
Most of us have multiple devices and therefore multiple IP addresses. If Instagram notices too many log-ins from multiple devices or multiple IP addresses within an unspecified timeframe, then they could interpret that as suspicious activity and block you. Awareness of this may help you to prevent it.
#6 Third-Party Apps and Buying Followers
I haven’t used any third-party apps for Instagram so I’m not very familiar with them. But apparently, there are apps out there that monitors your follower activity, tracks new followers and unfollowers, and will let you buy a ton of followers for your account. But all of these apps are no-nos so I wouldn’t recommend trying any of them. These apps could be one of the reasons your Instagram was deactivated.
#7 Violating Community Guidelines
This is the catch-all to explain the reasons your Instagram was deactivated. But some of the guidelines are written very subjectively so it can be difficult to determine actual violations. I definitely recommend proactively reading through the published Instagram Community Guidelines to ensure that you are not unintentionally violating any of them. The link to access the Community Guidelines directly is here: Instagram Community Guidelines.
So I’ve been obsessed with getting my Instagram account back ever since this happened to me 2 weeks ago. I’m still devastated by this since I invested a lot of time and energy into building my Instagram account. The idea of starting over just kills me. You can see that I’ve been active on it, up until the day they took it away from me and deleted all my posts and won’t let me log-in anymore…
Reasons Your Instagram Was Deactivated / Image Source: Pepper V.
#8 Use of Copyrighted Material
This one should be the easiest one to avoid. Only use original content. Always. And if you do this, then this won’t be a problem for you. If you are promoting products however, try to take your own photos of the product. If you MUST use an image provided to you by the sponsor, make sure that communication and image transaction happens in the Instagram DMs.
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I’m still reaching out to Instagram everyday, and researching different ways to contact them effectively. If you want a summary of what I’ve been trying, you can check-out my previous post here: 5 Ways to Restore Your Deactivated Instagram Account. I hope this never happens to you, it’s terrible!
I’ve literally spent the last several days trying to restore my deactivated Instagram account. I don’t know what happened. I am minding my own business, and the next thing I know I cannot log-in to my Instagram. I try to log back in and I get this Error Message that my Instagram account is deactivated for violating their Community Guidelines!
What?! I’ve done no such thing! I even clicked their Community Guidelines link and reviewed it and verified I did nothing that was against their terms. This is a terrible mistake!
The most frustrating thing about this is that there is no specific information to tell you what happened. Every inquiry leads you to their generic Help forum which is useless when you need SPECIFIC help, like, when your Instagram account was disabled for some specific reason and you don’t know why.
You start looking for outreach and there is no customer support information anywhere. I tried Googling some customer support contact information and even when you find email addresses online and you reach-out, you get these automated messages back which are not helpful at all.
I Googled so much that I even found an old Instagram customer support phone number and you don’t need to bother contacting it because it only re-directs you to go to their Help forum online. Useless.
So here are the 5 places where you can go to try to restore your deactivated Instagram account…
Restore Path #1 – Log-In Attempt Error Message
1. Attempt to log-in and when you get the Error Message select the “Learn More” link. 2. On the “Learn More About Your Account” page, there is a “let us know” link where you can tell them that this was a mistake.
Deactivated Instagram Account / Image Source: Pepper V.
3. The “let us know” link will take you to the “My Instagram Account Was Deactivated” Form. 4. Complete this “My Instagram Account was Deactivated” form. 5. You’ll receive an auto-email asking for proof that you are you. 6. Send them the requested proof. 7. Wait.
Restore Path #2 – Forgot Password
1. On the log-in screen, select the “Forgot password?” link. 2. On the “Trouble Logging in?” page, select the “Need more help?” link.
Deactivated Instagram Account / Image Source: Pepper V.
3. The “Need more help?” link will take you to a Request Support Form. 4. Complete the Request Support Form. 5. You’ll receive an auto-email asking for proof that you are you. 6. Send them the requested proof. 7. Wait.
All 3 of the above restore paths will deliver the following auto-email to you…
The Auto-Email You Will Receive
The auto-email you receive via the above 3 reporting avenues is the same. It basically asks you for a selfie with some identifying information about yourself.
Deactivated Instagram Account / Image Source: Pepper V.
Just make sure that you follow their instructions here perfectly. And then you wait. I’ve been waiting a total of 5 days and I haven’t heard a peep. This is terrible customer service from a company that makes BILLIONS of dollars off of us. I’m not happy.
Restore Path #4 – Meta Accounts Center
This restore attempt is not possible via your mobile device or via the app. This restore attempt you will need to log-in directly on your computer. And, this restore attempt is only available if you had previously connected your Instagram account to your Facebook account. I found it by accident when I was looking for support help on my Facebook, since I knew that my Instagram was linked to it and perhaps there was a different way.
1. You will need to log-in to your Facebook on your desktop/laptop computer. 2. Go to your Facebook Settings. 3. In your Facebook Settings, scroll all the way to the bottom of all your options – there are alot!
Deactivated Instagram Account / Image Source: Pepper V.
4. At the bottom is a logo for Meta, and you can click on the “Accounts Center” link. 5. Here, you will see your Instagram account listed with the Status of “Disabled”.
Deactivated Instagram Account / Image Source: Pepper V.
6. You can click on your Instagram account here and it will open a “Reactivate” option for you!
Deactivated Instagram Account / Image Source: Pepper V.
7. Good luck! Unfortunately, when I clicked the “Reactivate” button I got a “page cannot be displayed” error message. I’m still sharing this path with you in case it works for you – perhaps they fix it soon or perhaps there is a setting on my computer that caused it to glitch.
Restore Path #5 – Direct Emails
I’ve found several email addresses for Facebook and Instagram support, and I’ve emailed all of them. I never received an “Undeliverable” message from any of them, so I assume they all arrived at their destination, which may or may not be monitored. But if you are desperate like me, then it is worth a try. So far, I received a couple of auto-email responses back, but no real help by this method, but perhaps you will have better luck than me. The email addresses are:
Anyhow, so this is what I’ve been experiencing since Wednesday when I first discovered my deactivated Instagram account. I’m so upset. But I’m especially upset that Instagram has basically been ghosting me and I have ZERO information to work with. Being left in the dark is worse than this mistake happening in the first place. Because they could’ve made it right for me.
