I interviewed a close friend of mine, Jay Rivera. He graduated from John Jay college with a computer science degree. But he changed the office hours to be a personal trainer and nutritionist. Social media has been a great platform for his business since he was able to promote his services through these different profiles. Today he mainly uses facebook and instagram (@jaygoya) and owns a website (jfitnyc.com). Even though he is licensed by New York State, and all his certificates are veridical, he doesn’t use his real name on his social media profiles. According to him is just a way to attract people, is a marketing strategy. So that’s why he decided to go from Jay Rivera to J-Goya. For some of you non-spanish speakers, “Goya” is a seasoning that most Hispanics use in almost all their food. And their slogan reads “ Si es goya , tiene que ser bueno” ( If it is Goya, it has to be good). Implying that if you train with him, the service is going to be great. This is basically his explanation of why he chose this name. And it is even funny if you were raised in my culture where we all know what Goya is.
On the other hand he doesn’t only have these 2 accounts but he has an older account with Facebook where he has all his family members and old co-workers. The issue he deals with is that he is a little ashamed to add his old coworkers and family members to his personal trainer page because:
- The relationship he had with his old coworkers was strictly professional and it was all about business.
- Nobody knew that after Jay quit his job at the office, he went into strict training in order to have the body he needed and the preparation this new phase required.
- His family members wouldn’t be so comfortable having little Jay posing shirtless on their Facebook feeds.
So I will say that this transition from a business guy to a more casual personal trainer did have an impact in his life. On one side he is happier because he is doing what he loves but on the other he still has to be a little conservative among his family members and old coworkers. This doesn’t mean it is bad to have different accounts, to me it’s just a way to market specific populations.
A great example that agrees with this blog is Atique phrase: “The desire for bodily gratification is the most pressing impulse for social behavior.” (page 70). In the way that Jay will behave accordingly to the responses he will like to receive from his different accounts. The feed backs he received or will receive is what shapes the way he shows himself.
A very important point that Jay might want to take in consideration is that according to Atique “all of these layers of meaning are subject to interpretation by viewers who are inclined to read the messages in different ways according to their own social experiences” (page 52). This means that even though he thinks it is not appropriate for him to be showing up shirtless on his family feeds; it is up to him to educate their family members or even invite them personally to have work out sessions with them. If they had these “social experiences”, their mentality could be different.
A very interesting article also about other weird reasons why people create fake profiles can me found here. Enjoy!
- What will be your reaction if your “fake” profile gets suspended forever?
- Do having 2 or 3 accounts increases the time you spent on social media? If so, is that a negative effect? Explain.
I can relate with Jay about compartmentalizing one social life and adjusting your social accounts so it will cater a side of you to a particular audience. I only have family members close in age on my account as I don’t want my older relative seeing me partying and drawing negative conclusions. I never had a fake account so I can’t relate but having mutliple accounts does have negative effect on time. I tend to lose track of time on pages I like, or liking and commenting on friends posts.
I can definitely see why Jay would want to keep his family separate from his social media self. I’m one of those people who post crazy things on social media, too, but unlike Jay, I don’t keep them separate because I don’t care, haha. I think that if I had a fake account and it got suspended, I’d be like “that’s what I get.” I don’t have more than one account, because I’m too lazy to learn all the logins and I’ll always forget my password! But it would definitely increase my already all-consuming time spent on the internet.
I agree with the quote “all of these layers of meaning are subject to interpretation by viewers who are inclined to read the messages in different ways according to their own social experiences” (page 52). Since when I post picture on my Instagram, people have different perspectives based on their backgrounds and very interesting to see whenever they comment on the pictures in various ways. Also, thinking of your question #2, since I have two accounts on Instagram, one is for public and one is for only close friends and my family. Ever since I’ve started two accounts, I feel like I spend more time switching those two accounts back and forth.