Eric Roberts has revealed the one thing that would make him QUIT social media altogether.
The 33-year-old is one of Ireland’s most in-demand content creators, with over 407k followers on Instagram, and a massive 708.3k followers on TikTok.
While social media work is his bread and butter, Eric has confessed he would give it all up if people started trolling his family – namely his beloved nephew Oisin.
Eric’s nephew Oisin, who has autism and cerebral palsy, has become a fan-favourite character on his social media accounts, and the 33-year-old is very protective of him.
During our Goss Cover Star interview, the presenter admitted he’s been at the receiving end of online trolling, and understands that it “comes with the territory” and you “have to get used to it”.
When asked how he deals with trolls when they do creep in, Eric confessed: “I’m a big blocker. As soon as I see anything remotely negative, I’m like get out of here.
“Because my page is predominantly positive. And it’s not just me, I have to be considerate of Oisin as well, because if these people do seep in, I’d always be terrified of any trolling towards him, it would make me stop posting altogether because I wouldn’t subject my family to that.”
“I was so hesitant to even involve him in it, but he got such a positive response,” Eric explained.
“The main response I get that really brings me such joy is the people that come up to me with tears in their eyes saying, ‘You don’t understand what you’re doing. I have an adult son with autism, or I have family members with autism’, and people just love seeing it.
“We did the whole Christmas album with him there, and the response to that was crazy. I’ve never had such a response.”
“People wanted to send gifts and letters, it was just incredible. And Oisin loves it as well, still to this day he’s watching all those videos back. It’s just so special. Keeping negativity out is really important, so I just block.”
Eric welcomed his first child, a son named Rían, with his wife Niamh in January – and admitted he has the same concerns for his own son.
“We’ve had conversations about it. I think it’s fun now early on because he’s a little baby and he’s a newborn. But my content won’t be transitioning to predominantly, ‘I’m a dad, now this is my baby’,” he said.
“Everything I do is quite natural and I’m quite transparent, but I won’t be one of these TikTok dads or anything.”
Eric joked that his wife Niamh “despises” being on camera, and their son will feature in his videos just as much as her.
“Niamh’s an Irish teacher, and she doesn’t want her students seeing her online, which is understandable. She’s warmed to it a bit more, but I’d say Rían will feature as much as Niamh, which isn’t very much,” he explained.
“But my Instagram will still stay very much my own, I’m not going to become one of these over-obsessed fathers who won’t stop posting their child. Absolutely not, because I don’t like those accounts.”
