“No wonder your boss was upset,” Noah said, not bothering to suppress his delight. “That could be a death knell for the industry and maybe for your consulting.”
“Not in the slightest,” Ava mocked. “We lobbyists have learned how to deal with such studies. There have been others, and like what was done in the past, we’ll argue that the wrong amounts of vitamins or the wrong brands of supplements were used. Then we’ll say there was something wrong with the way the subjects were selected. After that we’ll blame the results on the big drug companies and fan conspiracy theories even to the point of suggesting big pharma was behind the study because they don’t want people to keep themselves well with relatively inexpensive supplements. The implication, of course, is that the drug companies want to sell more expensive prescription drugs. The public will eat it up. Besides, something like a medical journal article stays in the news feed for one cycle only, and then it disappears under the next scandal or disaster or tweet.”
“God! That’s discouraging,” Noah said.
“Ultimately, it is what the public wants, meaning an easy way out by taking a few pills rather than making the effort to maintain healthy lifestyles. Of course, for me it means I’ll have to go directly back to Washington to do damage control.”
With the food reheated, they sat back down at the counter. Night had completely fallen, and thanks to a run of superb weather, it was yet another picture-perfect evening. The glass sliders that lined the kitchen were folded back into their pockets, making it seem like the kitchen and the backyard were one single room. The floodlight illuminated the carefully planted garden. With the help of a few crickets, the fountain provided restful background noise.
“So you were telling me how social media fills a social need for you with no muss and no fuss.”
“Right,” Ava said. “But it’s a lot bigger than that. It gives me the opportunity to explore aspects of myself that I wasn’t even aware of.”
“Oh?” Noah questioned. Statements like that seemed to him to be on the weird side, especially coming from a fellow physician.
“In real life we’re all caught up in the reality of who and what we think we are,” Ava said. “We value consistency and so do our family and friends, who are more like us than we usually like to admit. That’s not the case in a virtual world. I can be whoever I want to be without any downside or consequence, with the benefit of learning more about myself.”
“So Gail Shafter, your Facebook and Snapchat persona, is not you with a different name?”
“No way,” Ava said with a unique laugh. “Although we’re the same age, she’s mired in a world that I was initially caught in right after high school but managed to escape. She’s stuck in a small town, working for a dentist who lords it over her, and she’s divorced after a failed marriage. She gives me a true appreciation of my life and what I’ve been able to become in the real world by a combination of hard work and chance. Compared to her, I am so lucky.”
“So it’s safe to say that when you’re on Facebook you’re Gail and not you?”
“Of course. It goes without saying, just like when I go on Facebook as Melanie Howard, I’m Melanie Howard.”
“Melanie Howard? Is that the name of another sockpuppet?”
“I don’t like the term sockpuppet or even smurf. They are too closely associated with uncivil online behavior. Melanie and I don’t do that. We don’t engage in any vicious trolling or any flaming whatsoever. That’s hardly the goal or the point. Melanie Howard is just another person in the virtual world trying to do the best she can within the limitations of her social circumstances, her personality, and her intelligence.”
“What’s she like?”
“In general, she’s the antithesis of me, or what I am afraid could have been me to some extent. She is the same age but a shy, unsophisticated, and gullible woman who is as desperately looking for love and companionship. Her boring job is as a secretary at a plumbing firm in Brownfield, Texas, working for an unappreciative boss who is constantly trying to hustle her. On the positive side, she’s attractive, with a warm, generous, and accepting heart, at least up to a point. Once that point is overstepped, she is as hard as steel.”
“Wow,” Noah said, not quite knowing what else to say. His original thought was that Ava used the name Gail Shafter just to protect her privacy, not because she wanted to experience a virtual life completely different from her own.
“Does this shock you?” Ava asked, looking at Noah with her head tilted slightly. She was smiling and obviously challenging him. “This is the twenty-first century,” she reminded him. “Almost two billion people use Facebook alone.”
“I’m just surprised,” Noah said. “Does it make you feel at all like an imposter with all these Facebook identities?”
Ava laughed. “Not in the slightest, because the word imposter has much too much of a negative connotation. I consider people like Melanie friends of mine and separate, real virtual identities for whom I merely act as the spokesperson so I can explore aspects of my own personality. I know that sounds a bit like ‘real artificial diamonds,’ but the current-day virtual world is challenging the real world in terms of relevance. What does real really mean? But if you insist on using the word imposter, remember that almost everyone on social media lies to puff themselves up and make their lives sound more exciting than they are. Even their supposedly candid pics are all Photoshopped. All they care about is the number of ‘likes’ they get. In that sense, most everyone today is an imposter. And what about you, Dr. Rothauser? Have you ever been an imposter to some degree, say, on a résumé?”
“Absolutely,” Noah said with such surety that it was Ava’s turn to be taken aback.
“Like all third-and fourth-year medical students,” Noah explained, “I had to pretend I was a doctor. If we didn’t do it, patients wouldn’t have put up with our fumbling antics.”
“Ah, yes, I remember it well. There were many times I felt guilty about the deception. But I was truthful if a patient asked.”
“Same with me,” Noah said. “What about dating websites, which you said you visited? Is that Gail and Melanie who go on them?”
“For sure,” Ava said. “I’d never go on a dating website for myself. They are entertaining, but there are too many weirdos out there hiding behind fake profiles. I know you said it worked for you, but that was a few years ago. Today most are just trolling for sex.”