Joey Swoll discusses how social media can ruin bodybuilding careers… or save them.
Joey Swoll is a man in the bodybuilding industry who utilizes social media to his advantage. It helps him find success with his own self brand and the various businesses that he runs. It’s a valuable tool to connecting with fans in the bodybuilding world. But it can also have a very dangerous dark side. One that is much darker than many understand. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Joey Swoll discusses the highs and lows of social media in bodybuilding.
While we all might debate about the good and bad of social media – it often involves more general things such as attention spans, lack of in person socializing, and how it can be used to help propel businesses. But for people in the bodybuilding industry that reach a top tier level of fame via social media the stakes are much higher.
Joey Swoll knows this more than most. He’s used social media to help build his brand and find success that he may have perhaps not found otherwise. But he’s also seen how social media nearly tore his personal life apart.
Online bullying is a real issue in the modern world and it’s certainly present in bodybuilding as well. Joey Swoll has experienced this first hand. One of the more extreme examples is when his mother fell seriously ill. Somehow, an Instagram user attained Joey’s personal phone number and published it out to the world online. Joey suddenly started receiving hundreds of calls and texts – most of which were saying terribly awful things about his mother. Examples include death threats and someone stating they would literally urinate on his mother’s grave once she passes away.
No matter who you are, no matter how in the public your life has become – this kind of abuse can be more than any individual can handle. While social media brought great fortune to Joey Swoll – this kind of bullying could lead to extreme turmoil. Depending on an individual’s support systems in place, this kind of abuse could lead to serious mental health issues and even drive someone to suicide.
Thats why in our interview with Joey Swoll, he wanted to discuss in detail the full picture of social media in bodybuilding. How it can make a career and it could also destroy a career. Or worse, destroy the personal life behind a career.
Joey chooses to focus on positivity and continues to use social media to try and spread connections rather than anger and fear. Ultimately, how many followers you have doesn’t equal your self worth. It’s not an indicator of how successful you are as a human being.
Joey Swoll ends off our conversation saying “I don’t give a f*ck how many followers you have.” He means that in a good way. He won’t judge a person based off of their online success. That doesn’t matter. Because the internet has been used to do heinous things as well.
Ultimately, social media is a tool just like any other. It should not be what defines a bodybuilder or any individual. It should not be the core attribute to your business model. It shouldn’t be what a person expects to be the foundation of his or her entire life. The tool of social media will surely change – it’s up to the foundation beneath that a person makes that will define a person’s security, future, and value.
Check out Joey Swoll’s full breakdown of social media and bodybuilding in our latest GI Exclusive interview above!
