LU’s anonymous celeb

The man behind @ringbyspringlu talks Netflix, cats and ‘The Tonight Show’

While 15,000 people know him for his humorous thoughts, perfectly expressed in a mere 140 characters or less, few know the face or name behind the @ringbyspringlu Twitter account. His identity is one of the best-kept secrets at Liberty University.

NameD — @ringbyspringlu was titled after Liberty’s popular phrase.  Photo credit: Leah Seavers

NAMED — @ringbyspringlu was titled after Liberty’s popular phrase. Photo credit: Leah Seavers

But as followers continue trying to piece together the puzzle and capture his elusive identity, there is much more to the social media manager, who will be referred to as Jerry Singleton to maintain anonymity, than witty words for single people.

As is evident in many of his tweets, Singleton is a lover of Netflix and a self-proclaimed TV enthusiast.

“I can guarantee you none of my 15,000 followers has watched as many TV series as me,” Singleton said.

According to Singleton, he has watched more than 80 TV series from start to finish, and some of his favorites include “The West Wing,” “The Office,” “Psych,” “Parks and Recreation” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”

In addition to his love for TV, Singleton said that the love he expresses for his cat, Avi, through the @ringbyspringlu account is absolutely true and not the least bit exaggerated.

“I love my cat,” Singleton said. “I’m a cat guy. I have a picture of my cat on my desk.”

But for all the time he spends playing with Avi or enjoying a good show, Singleton said he loves to work. As a “super senior,” Singleton works hard to balance his responsibilities as a full-time online student and his duties as a full-time employee at Liberty.

“I’m a very motivated person,” Singleton said. “… I’m one of those people that will finish a class two weeks in. That’s just who I am.”

Singleton, who is currently a pre-law major, said he chose his field of study after switching majors a couple of times. According to Singleton, he mostly enjoys learning about contract law. However, his dream is actually not to pursue a job in law, but to someday go into management for a sports team or agency — a desire that has risen out of his love for athletics.

Identity — The man behind the popular twitter account, pictured above, enjoys remaining anonymous. Photo credit: Courtney Russo

Identity — The man behind the popular twitter account, pictured above, enjoys remaining anonymous. Photo credit: Courtney Russo

Coming from a family in which both his parents played college athletics, Singleton has played more than a few sports himself. During his pre-college years, he played on soccer, volleyball, ultimate Frisbee and football teams. Before deciding to attend Liberty after visiting the campus during College for a Weekend, Singleton was heavily recruited by NCAA Division I teams to play football as a receiver.

Though it may seem counterintuitive to many sports fans, Singleton said he is both a University of Florida Gators and Florida State University Seminoles fan. He also follows the NFL as an avid Green Bay Packers fan.

But while Singleton’s love for sports runs deep in his blood, he admitted that Twitter runs a close second among his top hobbies.

While he had a personal Twitter account before taking over the @ringbyspringlu account, a unique set of circumstances allowed him the opportunity to expand his
social media footprint.

When he was only a follower of the account, he met the previous manager and founder, Chelsey Wolf, by bringing her a Cook-Out milkshake she requested via tweet.

Following their first interaction, Singleton and Wolf became friends, and Wolf eventually handed over the account in May of 2014 when she graduated.

According to Singleton, he uses the account purely as a means of entertaining his 15,000-plus followers.

“I don’t care about the number (of followers I have),” Singleton said. “I care that I get to tweet and have fun with it. … I’m (doing) this because I like Twitter and I like making tweets up. … It’s purely (because) I like making people laugh and having fun. … I’m just here to be funny and make people smile.”

Now, in order to keep those followers happy, Singleton said he keeps a running list of funny thoughts ready to tweet at a moment’s notice.

“I completely think in 140 characters,” Singleton said. “I’ll see something happen or hear something funny and I’ll just take one bit of it and I’m like, ‘Oh that could be a good idea,’ and I’ll think of 140 characters (for it). On my notes section on my phone, I have about 100 tweets that I’ve thought of, … and I just constantly post them.”

In addition to tweeting, Singleton explained that he also works hard to interact with followers.

“I love reading people’s tweets,” Singleton said. “I love seeing what’s going on with people. … I like when people tweet something funny, so I want to encourage it (by favoriting that tweet). … I like interacting. I have fun with that.”

Recently, the opportunity for interaction drastically increased when the @ringbyspringlu account gained national and international attention after Singleton’s tweet was featured on the #hashtags segment of “The Tonight Show.”

According to Singleton, the tweet, which reads “One time I told a girl she was beautiful, and after she responded with thank you, I said ‘ya I’ve been watching you a lot.’ #WhyImSingle,” is the abbreviated account of a real story from Singleton’s time at Liberty.

The awkward interaction took place during Singleton’s freshman year following a Convocation.

“I had in my head something else and what came out was really awkward,” Singleton said.

According to Singleton, his mom told him Wednesday night about the #WhyImSingle hashtag that would be the basis of the Thursday-night segment, and Singleton quickly went to work carefully crafting the tweet.

“I just knew that type of tweet could get on there,” Singleton said. “… I tweeted the right type of way and the right type of thing, but I still didn’t think I had a chance.”

Though he follows the show pretty regularly, he happened to not watch the show on the night the tweet was featured.

“I totally forgot about it when it actually happened,” Singleton said. “I wasn’t feeling good that night, and I took NyQuil and … I woke up at 6:15 (a.m.) and I was just gonna look at my phone to see what time it was and I had 67 notifications. I was debating with myself whether I wanted to look at them or fall back asleep, and right when I was about to close my phone, I saw the words, ‘You were on Jimmy Fallon.’ … I had to charge my phone about four times that day. I gained about 200 followers in two days.”

While Singleton said he does not often care about keeping his identity hidden, he admitted that the need for anonymity did slightly hinder the celebration process.

“I was so excited, and the worst part was I couldn’t brag about it,” Singleton said. “… There are not many times when being anonymous is annoying, but that time was annoying, because I wanted to tell everyone. I wanted to post on Instagram, but I couldn’t. … It was just funny that I couldn’t say anything to anyone.”

However, now that the attention has mellowed out following the late-night feature, Singleton said he is perfectly content being a secretive celebrity.

“I don’t want to be a known campus celebrity,” Singleton said. “… Most people know of me, but no one really knows me, and I love that. I like being in the background.”

Planning to graduate in December 2015, Singleton said he is not too worried about what he will do with @ringbyspringlu when he leaves Liberty.

“I just think about what I’m going to tweet next,” Singleton said.

BROWN is the editor-in-chief.

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