2 hours ago
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A lot of us prefer our social media to be perfectly curated these days, but not John Cena.
The actor and WWE wrestler has over 14.4M followers on X, formerly Twitter, and 21M followers on Instagram - however, it's who Cena is and isn't following that has caught people's attention.
Despite having a huge following on Instagram, he doesn't follow anyone on the platform which is pretty common for big celebrities but it's a different story on X, formerly Twitter where the 47-year-old follows a whopping 952,000 random people.
(In fact, he said in an interview with WIRED last month that he will continue to follow 1,000 people a day on there).
It's caused both confusion and delight to those who are on Cena's following list, as there are many posts on Reddit sharing their disbelief and excitement at the star clicking their 'follow' button.
But what is the reason?
This is a question TV host and podcaster Chris Van Vliet posed to Cena who was doing press for his role in the 2024 comedy movie, Ricky Stanicky last year.
He asked the actor about his social media activity and why there is a vast difference in how he navigates the two social media platforms.
"Because Instagram is an interpretive exercise. I don't want to lead the witness by following anyone," Cena said.
"Because if I follow Bill Gates," he continued., "OK, well, this is curating the experience for me and I may feel a certain way about Bill Gates so I feel a certain way about these images."
He then described X, formerly Twitter as a "conversation starter" where his drafts are "almost like a journal" and explained why he follows so many people on there - and it's all to do with seeing a wide range of opinions.
"...and how do you start a conversation? Follow everyone, people you know nothing about, walks of life you know nothing about -people that don't share you views, people who speak out harshly against your value system, people who live within your value system.
"Follow everyone because then people can engage with 'Hey I was thinking this today.' Go for it".
Van Vliet also noted to Cena how "it makes people's day when they see that you follow them" to which the actor indicated this was "another" reason for his mass-following habit and added: "There's a little shred of gravity in that too."
So the question that remains is... how can you get a follow from Cena?
"If you got a blue check mark, that's a go-to for me. You're in and I want you in the conversation," he said.
Elsewhere, theory suggests that John Cena's Oscars skit was a Satanic ritual, and behind the scenes of John Cena's nude Oscar stunt.
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