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Each week, I ask a member of the racing community to shed some light on their social media usage. Up next: Amy Earnhardt, the wife of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who maintains an active presence on Twitter and Instagram.
You’re active on social media, and that has opened you up to a world of different types of people I’m sure you never would have thought you would hear from. What’s the overall experience like for you? Do you find it more positive or negative?
For the most part, I find it positive. Social media was scary for me at first. I just felt like it was this giant world and it was super intimidating, so I waited awhile to even join Twitter. I don’t still have a Facebook account. But I’ve had a lot of fun with Instagram and Twitter so far, and you’re right — there’s a lot of people you get to meet, or just chitchat with that you’d never otherwise have any contact with. Dale had (country singer) Cole Swindell stop by today (at Richmond) and they met on social media. That’s just one of the things that social media would allow that nothing else before has. So it’s been a lot of fun.
You say it’s more positive for you. How do you have that experience? Because from my view, I look at it sometimes like, “Oh my gosh, she must get so much crap,” as I search through all those responses. But you don’t feel like it’s terrible or overwhelming?
It can be overwhelming. I kind of choose when to and when not to get on there. At first, there were quite a few people that I had to block — everybody has those few people who like to just ruin their day. But you have to remind yourself that those people don’t even know who you are, and they’re probably not just doing that to you, they’re doing it to plenty of other people. It’s just their M.O. in life. So I don’t let that get to me at all.
Like I said, I kind of tend to stay away from Twitter on a bad day. If Dale doesn’t do well on the track, I try to encourage him to do the same thing, because he’ll have 90 great comments and then those few that are bad just really bring him down. So I just do the same for myself.
It’s interesting how Twitter hasn’t really done a good job of being able to cut trolls. Because like you said, most people on Twitter are good people and they’re positive and they’re encouraging, but then you get those people who can be so bad that it really can ruin somebody’s day if you don’t have super thick skin. Is there anything you’d like to see Twitter do, or do you think that just comes with the territory?
I kind of feel like that’s the nature of the beast. It’s the freedom of speech. We’re in America, so people get to say what they want and they have that ability. You have that ability to block them, mute them, whatever you so choose. So if you choose not to, then you have to take what they give you. I feel like (Twitter has) done what they can with it.
The biggest blowup that I can think of, when you got the most heat, was when you posted about not letting Dale run the Clash. How did you handle the aftermath of all that?
So that’s a great question. Dale actually threw me under the bus with that because he had been asked over and over again — because he had qualified to do so — was he going to run the race? And he had even told Mr. H (Rick Hendrick) that it was up to me. So after a lot of heckling on social media, especially that week — he must of had an interview where it came up again because that day in particular, I had a lot of responses in my feed — I just got tired of listening to it, so I’d figure I’d put a squash to it.
And I definitely had some negative feedback, but I spoke the truth and I stand by it. I would say it again. He put me in the position to even have an opinion about it publicly, because he was talking about it publicly.
Honestly, I still get responses about that, even on random tweets that have nothing to do with it. People still get hung on those things. But to be honest, when it comes down to it, he’s gonna do what he wants to do. It’s his decision. I just was trying to clean my Twitter feed up. I didn’t want to hear it anymore.
So people were like, “Come on Amy, come on Amy, come on Amy.” And so you give a response and they’re like, “Amy, you suck!”
“Boo Amy! You said the wrong thing!” (Laughs)
You obviously use Instagram as well. Do you prefer Instagram to Twitter?
I do, just because I’m a visual person. I like the pictures. I’m a girl, so I like to follow bloggers, I like to follow foodies and just different famous people. I like to see what people are doing. I’m just like everybody else — the people I enjoy following, I just want to see what they’re doing.
It’s like legalized snooping in a way, because people post these things and they have no idea really how many people are seeing it. And it just seems like a fun little insight into other people’s lives, where you don’t get that as well with Twitter. People can post photos, but it’s more of just a quick blurb, if you will.
How many people are you regularly going through their feed on Instagram? Do you just go through your timeline? Because Instagram timelines are out of order, which isn’t very convenient, so sometimes you have to go back and see certain people.
I don’t try to go back to pages, because I’m gonna be the person who accidentally starts hearting things two months old, and then you’re alerted that I’m a stalker on your page. So I’ve just tried not to do that. But I follow so many people on Instagram, my feed’s pretty current. I can go through the last five and refresh it and have a whole new 10 to look at. So I don’t get bored with it.
Where do you come down on looking at other people’s Instagram Stories? Because for me, I’m on Snapchat a lot, so I feel like people put their same stuff sometimes on Snapchat as they do on Instagram Stories and I get super annoyed. I’m like, “Oh crap, now I have to go through their Instagram story, too,” because I don’t want the circle to pop up and just sit there and look at it. Do you go through most of the little circles?
I do. I love the Stories. It’s a fun way to see what people are doing all day long. I like that they added that, because you don’t have to worry about posting something that you might regret. It comes right off.
I’m with you on the Snapchat and Instagram story thing. I don’t have a public Snapchat for that reason. Like you can’t keep up with both; that’s a lot to do. But it’s annoying, as a follower, if you see the same person posting the same things everywhere. That’s not what the purpose of all these different apps is, right?
I guess I’m going to admit to this, but there are times when I’ll go through and heart several pictures — and then for some reason I don’t feel like hearting a picture. I see it, but I just don’t. So do you ever withhold the heart?
I do the same thing. I don’t even know what that is. Maybe you can help explain even what I’m doing, because I don’t even know what that is either. It’s like, “I’ll heart four or five of your photos, maybe I shouldn’t heart all six of these.” I don’t know what that is.
Is it some sort of thing like “This wasn’t quite good enough to get my half second of time it takes to tap?” Like “I didn’t want to take my energy to show my approval of this.”
I think that it is true. I also think it depends on what comes right before. Like if you have three or four great photos that other people posted and this is just not up to par with those, then you just don’t heart it. Sometimes I scroll back up like, “Oh, I actually really liked it, it’s one of my really good friends, I’ll just heart it anyway.” It’s a picture of their kid, he’s so cute, I’ll heart.
You’re like, “I wasn’t going to (heart) another kid picture, but you know what, I do like them.” So you do heart them after all.
Yeah, you get a conscience.
Going back to Twitter for a second, where do you fall on blocking, muting or just ignoring? I think Dale has said in the past that he doesn’t block anymore, he just mutes. You mentioned you have blocked people in the past. Do you still use the block button a lot?
I haven’t used the block button in quite awhile, actually. When we first started Twitter, they didn’t even have the mute button, so that would have been helpful. But I’ve blocked people back then who were pretty vicious, or who were imitating me on Twitter, and I just didn’t want to see their stuff either. Mute, I haven’t really used that much. I just feel like at this point if it’s going to be there and I know it’s gonna be there, I know that I don’t need to take it seriously, so it doesn’t really matter that much. But I’ve used both a couple of times.
That’s a good point. I should probably take that into consideration a little bit more, because I’ll mute people a lot. I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they got me upset enough to block, but it does bother me. It gets to me, so I don’t want to see it. You know what I mean?
I can understand that. Muting is great, because you’re right, they don’t know that you did that.
Did you know that you can block people in your phone, by the way, and they don’t know that you blocked them? Like an actual phone number?
Yes! I’ve been doing that for a lot of spam numbers recently because people call me — I don’t know if this happens to you — with the area code and it looks like it must be someone you know.
Right. I don’t know how they figured out how to do that, but you get spam numbers from your own area code. It’s ridiculous.
They disguise their number, and it’ll be like the first three digits of my phone number, too! So I’m like, “It must be somebody I know,” and it’s somebody offering me a vacation to Florida on a recording.
I don’t answer, and I don’t even listen to the voicemail if it’s not a number I don’t have programmed into my phone. I don’t even bother listening to the voicemail.
You screen the calls.
I screen. I’m a hard screener.
What do you think the future is on social media? There’s all this live stuff now. You can pretty much see into anybody’s life as much as you want to show them. Is there a limit, or is it going to just keep going in that direction?
That’s a really good question. I wouldn’t have said I could have seen social media coming, so I have no idea where it will be going. I can only imagine that it’s going to be…easier and easier for people to use, maybe. But honestly, my brain does not work like that. I have no idea where it would go. What do you think it’s going to do?
I think at some point, there has to be a tipping point both with trolls and with the amount that’s shared because —
Too much skin, is that what you mean?
Just that I could start an account right now, tweet to Dale Jr. and say “You are the most awful human being!” or whatever, and he might read it. And I don’t think celebrities are going to be on social media forever if that’s the case, because people will just be like, “Why am I doing this?”
I’m more worried about how unsafe it is for kids. I don’t have kids yet, but we’re trying, and who knows what that’s going to look like by the time our kids are old enough to use Snapchat or anything else. There’s so many other apps that kids use that I don’t even know how to use. So that’s the scariest part for me.
As an adult, especially Dale or any other celebrity, I feel like they should just take it as it comes. It’s just part of the gig.
I’ve thought about this myself. Someday when I have kids, how much do I share pictures of my kids publicly? Because it would be nice to have a private account, but then people think you’re keeping stuff guarded. You have a public Instagram and public Twitter. Is there going to be any place where you can just share stuff with your family and friends, where you don’t have to show everybody?
So we do that now. We both have iPhones. Most of the people in my family and Dale’s family have iPhones, so we have photo streams where we share photos. Both of my sisters have kids, Dale’s sister has kids, and so we kind of do that there, and you can comment on there if you really want to, and like it.
You can comment on the iPhoto stream?
Whatever you want. And aunts, uncles, whatever, and they can see the photos you post. They get a little button that pops up.
So you can bypass social media. That’s interesting. Maybe that’s the answer of what will happen ultimately is like mini social media networks — just with your friends and family, where you don’t even have to have a profile.
That’s right, it’s just all in the cloud. You have to remember that.
You say that you’ve given advice to Dale. Has he ever given you any advice about your social media use?
Yes. So this is a great question. I have many a times gotten on Twitter, and I am an opinionated girl. I can be a little cut and dry, and that doesn’t come across so well, especially just in text on Twitter with a lot of people that follow who don’t actually know who you are.
So he’ll see me start typing something, he’ll look over my shoulder and be like, “I don’t think you should send that.” And now I am really nervous about what I send out, because not only do I have Dale watching if I’m gonna send it out, but his entire brand team. There’s a wrath that comes from it, not just from Dale but with his entire team.
Have you ever gotten in trouble with a tweet that you’ve sent? Are people like, “Amy, no. You shouldn’t have said this?”
Yeah, there was a couple. I won’t reference them, but I’m sure everybody probably knows what they are. But I don’t regret it at all.
One last thing I want to ask you about, which shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but you’ve had a couple of messages of tolerance lately. These are really hard times in the world and society, but you’ve kind of had that message of love or different colored hearts for people of different races. What’s been behind that?
I just feel like people use social media, especially Twitter…you find that generally people that have something negative to say. Instead of it being positive, you hear more negative things, especially about politics or about any big thing. Even athletic games, football games, whatever — if somebody does something stupid, you hear all of the trolls versus the people that are excited about it.
So I just feel like if it’s something I really believe in, I’m going to voice my opinion and try to be as positive about it as possible. I tend to stay away from politics and those things — I just don’t want to get involved with it and I have the wrath of whoever wants to fight with me about it on social media. I don’t want to use my social media that way.
It’s supposed to be fun, right? So that’s why I keep it that way.
This interview was brought to you by Dover International Speedway. The cutoff race for the first playoff round takes place at Dover on Oct. 1. Here’s a link to buy tickets (and make sure to come say hi at the tweetup).
