DoralSnob has emerged as a resource for Doral young adults to get interested on what is happening in their city.

Doral youth in the search for Doral culture.

 

By: Doral Mom

We have to keep it confidential. It was part of the deal.

Doral Snob, the social media sensation that has shaken the foundations of Doral youth community and has sparked on them the interest on getting involved on the happenings in their city, agreed to be interviewed as long as we became part of the very fortunate few allowed to keep the secret of his identity.

It was a delight meeting such an educated gentleman. He embodies the vision of what we all want the future of Doral residents to be: bright and witty, well read and articulated; successful and committed to excellence and responsibility. Leadership and trustworthiness are his personal values. No wonder he has been able to come up with an idea to spread those notions among his readers.

Anonymity gives this young Doral resident, “proudly made, born and raised here”, the freedom to express his ideas, and also attracts the community of readers he pursues with his blog and twitter account. In less than a month he has been able to collect and keep increasing a solid flock of followers that engage in socialization, navigate between both his information outlets and share his opinions with others. It is the example of very well managed online journalism. Those are excellent results for someone who has received little formal training on social media marketing.

His main objective is being “a community vanguard, somebody who looks to the government and sees that everything is at check, someone who looks to the community and sees what is in style; someone who IS Doral, and is the Doral culture.” And wants to keep it anonymous for now because some things he is going to say “are going to make some people uncomfortable and unhappy, it might point out some problems with our city. We are going to hit all emotions, people are going to laugh, to cry, to smile and identify with this. Like a little tease”.

On the first tweet on his timeline he warns his readers “it is going to be a bumpy ride”, because his humor, sarcasm and straight to the point statements are “not going to be fun for everyone”. But he is not afraid of any kind of retaliation by those who might be affected by his comments “I trust the first amendment, all the way through”.

About Drugs and a growing Doral culture

One of his tweets addresses the depth of the drug problems that are occurring within the city, when he says that in Doral it is possible to have weed delivered, but not food from a popular burger joint.

He considers the drug problem in the city has grown in the last few months, and that it is worst among adults than among the youth. “Adults are blaming the youth. Adults have the authority and the others are their kids. That is always the way it is going to go. I know adults, and I know youth in the community who partake in recreational use. I have seen it.  It has grown.  It is booming so far that I have noticed in the past months”.

DoralSnob agrees with one of his readers on thinking that the city is ‘uncultured’ in the sense that it does not have a long history and cultural manifestations typical of Doral are yet to develop. “We are shallow, we don’t have a culture. We don’t have a specific music, way of dressing, or art form that represents us. I think we don’t have something that identifies us”.

He criticizes the reactive manner the city has evolved, because although it is very well located, it was not planned at the beginning to be a young and vibrant city but a retirement community. “There were businesses established here, people wanted to live near their jobs, the houses were built. People needed to send their children to school, the schools were built. It ends up being responsive to the needs of the population. We have to learn not to response only to the needs but to anticipate. Doral waits for the problems to happen to think about them”.

He would like to see the people of Doral getting involved on creating a culture for the city, along with the government.  “It goes together. The government works for the people and with the people to create the culture.  The ultimate goal would be for people to be more involved, to participate; more aware on what is going on; participating in their culture, everything go hand in hand, that is what make the community more cultured.”

And he has embraced that commitment to participation with this initiative to connect young people with the reality of their surroundings.

On education and constructive criticism

He is the product of Doral Public Education, both from charter and Public schools. And is very proud of the education received “both systems have their pros and cons. In 90 % of America public schools are not as good as in Doral. In Doral schools you have a mix of well-prepared parents, interested and stimulated children and teachers that care, it makes schools different. And parents are more dedicated. Not going to college is not an option for Doral children.  We have a very high graduation rate”.

The population he is targeting with his posts and tweets are those English speaking teens and young adults. “We are doing only English, There are no plans to do Spanish in the future, and we believe it is the primary language of communication. We want to reach to a stable target”.

He plans not to “leave any stone unturned” when making criticism about local government and politics, but in the spirit of raising awareness on the youth about the importance of being involved on the growth of their city, because “Criticizing is good if it is constructive. I want to get people’s attention, starting conversations but yellow journalism is not correct. We want to look at the information from the truth”.

The level of influence he is starting to reach among Doral youth has not sunk in yet, but he is getting aware that his words have authority among his readers and is taking full responsibility on setting good examples, keeping his post respectful, yet critical enough to spark comments and interactions.

Looking forward to have more people engaging in communicating with him through his work, he shares his vision for the city he calls home:  “Doral would have to become timeless. Doral would have to be like Coral Gables and other established cities that have their identities. Doral has its golf identity and that is the only part that we can look at that has never changed. Because that is how we were founded, when Doral resort started. I want to see something timeless, something more original”.