Social Media - What's in your name?

I stumbled across a social experiment which I had not intended to do! I was baffled by what I noticed.

There are so many articles out there teaching people how to maintain their social media, what to do to engage their audience, how to gain followers, have people like your pages, and gain subscribers.

They also talk about how your profile picture is important for your marketing success. People look at your bio and profile picture, make a quick judgment and decide if you’re worth following.

But what about using our real name in the social media? What if your name is not typical, common, white, English, European name?

Have you ever thought that you might be judged based on your name?

I have various twitter and YouTube accounts based on my interests. The accidental social experiment proved that although I am the same person behind the scene operating many accounts, more people were accepting of me when I used a non-ethnic name combined with a profile picture that represented western culture and familiarity. In both cases, most of the content remained the same. In one example, when I approached an individual indicating an interest in their network, I was totally ignored. The same individual approached me at a much later date when I had a much different name than my original ethnic name. The person really does not know who I am. They do not know me personally. But they judged me based on my name and decided whether they wanted to interact with me or not. I must say, I really don’t care for that individual very much now.

We all judge, misjudge, assess, and re-assess. I don’t follow someone who talks about fashion. The same goes for me, not everyone wants to follow someone who is tweeting for human rights and amnesty. My tweets are not fun, but rather of the sad, serious, troublesome world we live in. It is reasonable and logical that people choose to interact with others based on their mutual interests.

But then again, there are those that interact with others based on their names.

Do you have the RIGHT name?! You have less than a minute to impress...

Photo Source: http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/what-happens-internet-every-60-seconds-122741

For You A Thousand Times Over...

I tried to cry quietly not to wake up others. As I held the book against my chest and I went back to the beginning of the story. Running it through my head like a movie frame by frame. Kept hearing..For You A Thousand Times Over...

The Kite Runner was published in 2003, the year that my life was filled with many trials and tribulations and really did not have much time to read! I finished the book tonight. A novel, a fiction, that is how they start describing the book. It might be a fictional story but those fictions are and have been others painful reality. The story of friendship, love, lust, betrayal, lies, evil, secrets, childhood sexual abuse, rape, revolution, occupation, immigration, and refugees intertwined with pain ,connected in deep rooted human desire for love, belonging, and acceptance.

Was my crying for the characters in the book or my own painful reality of once upon a time leaving my beloved country behind.....was it Baba's death in the book or losing my own father and not having been able to say goodbye to him for one last time...Zendagi migzara, Life Goes On... or was it when Sohrab said "I just want my old life back" ...the book might be a fiction but the stories in the book are my realities and many others around the world...