http://www.thesuburbanite.com/article/20140706/SPORTS/140629526/10782/SPECIAL
We have all been there, our favorite football team loses because of a bone head play by a big name player, and we take to Facebook or Twitter to let the world know we are upset with them. But where do we draw the line? Are we only allowed to be upset with professional athletes? College athletes? High school athletes?
It is unfair for high school athletes to have to see bad things written about them. The press never writes anything bad about what happens in games, just tries to turn it around into a positive for others. In the article I found, it shows exactly how social media can bring a team down, and be a negative influence on a season. Some high school girls team was actually feuding through twitter, but one of the girls said she was joking around. Context is extremely hard to determine through 140 characters or whatever it is on Twitter. Some people can read something negative about them and brush it off. Others take every little criticism to heart and it eats away at them inside. Being a former athlete, I know when I made a mistake, but I certainly hated other people talking about it. Especially if they are incapable of doing anything better. High School kids do not deserve to be criticized like professionals because they are just kids.
Social media is a great tool in order to see in to the lives of our favorite athletes, and even communicate with them every once in a while. Professional athletes handle criticism well because they understand that one game doesn't mean the end of the world. For some of these high school kids, they take everything to heart and are so afraid to make mistakes. They will already be down on themselves for the mistake they made, and the last thing we need them to see is their peers making fun of them for it. It is going to end up with a kid taking his own life, and for no real reason. Social media is becoming too important, and needs to not consume a lot of the lives of young adults today. I won't get a Twitter just because I don't feel the need to get one. I was basically pressured into Facebook in high school because I was one of the only kids left that didn't have one.
Hope everybody had a great 4th of July!!!! Good luck with the rest of the semester!
Walter,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great topic, one that everyone should become aware of. It is definitely a shame to hear about all the negative comments that high school athletes could read on social media. High school can be a tough time for anyone, much less to be exposed to the unfiltered world of social media. I would even venture to say that some college athletes are in this boat as well. The pressure is on to perform well and criticism from yourself, coach, and teammates is sometimes enough to make you feel bad. I think social media users need to learn to be more filtered and understand that their tweets and posts are just as strong as a verbal comment, and sometimes even stronger due to how quickly social media posts can be spread.
Andrea