How We Bought Instagram Followers

It's real, guys. 

After months - nay, years - of wondering. 

Wondering f you could, really, with the click of a button, purchase tangible social influence . . . 

I know now that it's true. 

Devastating, but true. 

The idea of buying Instagram followers came to my attention about a year or so ago, when I heard from multiple sources that a certain big name blogger had used this technique to gain her fame. 

Ever since then, I've wondered: Could it really be that easy? Could buying followers - Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - really skyrocket you to success?

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Well, it's an easy enough thing to find out. Especially since doing so is weirdly cheap. 

Even so, the idea of it really scared me. After witnessing at fashion week just how big of a deal Instagram followers could be, the idea that you could obtain them for less than a two minute cab ride was literally disturbing. The thought of it makes me uncomfortable. 

Would it be melodramatic to say that it would mean that everything I'd ever known was a lie?

Needless to say, it was not my account with which we (a fearless friend & my fearful self) experimented.

This is our story:

1. First step, we intellectually Googled "best place to buy Instagram followers".

2. Second step, we bought said followers. - $6 for 500 bonifide fake followers. 
They generously offered an extra 250 for $2. 
We took the bait and skipped ordering sushi for lunch that day. 'Twas quite the sacrifice. 

3. Third step, we waited. 

Several days, in fact. It was a good solid two days before we saw any changes at all. Then slowly, it began. The followers trickled in steadily over the course of about 3 days. Almost as if to mimic the real live effect of going viral. 

4. Fourth step, we analyzed. Who were these "followers"? 

Most are fake, one-photo accounts with unpronounceable names & quirky pictures. It would be easy enough examine the followers of - say, one aforementioned "big name blogger" to check for their legitimacy, except for the fact that most accounts only allow you limited access to said followers. This poses a problem, because if our theory is correct, buying a large sum of followers will prompt the organic aggregation of additional, real human, followers - which would check out as legit. So no good way to investigate. 

** Next step?

We wait. 

Will my anonymous friend blow up? Will his/her new followers rate increase ten-fold? Will the acquisition of 750 fake followers prompt the subsequent acquisition of 750 - and then 1500 - and then 3000 - more? What is, as my friend referred to it, "the magic number"?

Or will the fake followers slowly go away? 
Will they leave just as quickly as they came?

Or maybe Instagram will flag/disable his/her account?
I mean, is this even legal?

I'll keep you colonels updated. 

Until then,

let's all ponder what the complete destruction of follower value could mean for social media as a whole?

Could this be the beginning of the end?

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Cheers(?)