Things in Sports Social Media Ruined
The rise of social media as a part of our life, culture and—of course—sports, has been awesome in so many ways. Not only has it created countless platforms for people to communicate with each other, but it's completely transformed how we get and provide information.
Somehow, from this untamed universe of thoughts and ideas, a new kind of relationship emerged between sports, the men and women that compete in them, and the people who love to watch it. Athletes were no longer these unreachable icons, but actual humans fans and reporters could talk too, because social media apps like Facebook and Twitter offered a kind of safety zone.
And all of that is good. But, man-oh-man, social media is a double-edged sword. Anyone who spent time in the chat rooms of the prehistoric Compuserve and AOL era knows that this same shelter that eliminates barriers to positive communication also harbors the mean, weird and outright crazy.
Beyond the communication aspects of social media, is the fog of information that never stops flowing and undergoes almost zero quality control. In the world sports, this can be...problematic.
These are the things in sports social media ruined.
It Let's Terrible Things Sneak into Your Life
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One the reasons social media apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram experienced such explosive growth in a relatively short amount of time is that users don't have to "pay" for them. And though there may not be a "fee" in the monetary sense of the term, sports fans certainly pay a price.
In 1999, if you were content with something like RedskinsFacts.com being a cynical little anecdote mentioned in the news, but later forgotten, then that's what it was. Today, not only do things you have no interest in make an unannounced cameo, you have to go through the visceral experience of clicking something to make it go away.
The same is true regarding the musings and virtual victory laps of fans of rival teams--before, your dark inner-torment was left to make its peace, interrupted by an in-law or co-worker, now its burning a hole in your newsfeed.
It Can Unleash Unruly Digital Mobs
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Once upon a time, when your team lost, you vented with friends and even strangers. Terrible things may have been said, but they were largely confined to the living room, bar and streets of your city.
Sometimes things got out of hand—in the stands or outside the arena—but even going so far as dumping garbage on the quarterback's lawn was considered out-of-bounds.
Social media has created a digital environment that can best be described as global anarchy fueled by the knowledge no one is going to get punched in the face.
It Made Unwanted Information Inescapable
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For all-too-brief moment in time—between the death of the VCR and the advent of good smartphones—a new cable television technology called DVR answered the prayers of every sports fan who would record a big game if they couldn't see it live.
It did its job, without the threat of a malfunctioning timer or absent-minded loved one, and fast-forwarding through commercials was a breeze. You kept the radio off and avoided anyone in a jersey on your way home; not fail-safe, but reliable.
Then, your friends, apps and the rest of humanity began blasting every device within arms-reach with non-stop comments and updates about the very game you were dying to sterilize from your mind.
And even if you managed to keep the tweets, status updates and instant messages out of sight...the notifications would use your relief as a Trojan Horse just as clicked play on your recording.
It Eliminated the Sacred Separation of Athlete and Drunken Buffoon
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Some things work so well, it becomes inevitable they'll be broken. Case in point: the separation between sports stars and their legions of (sometimes insane) fans.
The idea that athletes entertain us for a few hours each week, then we all go about our lives and business—with the occasional autograph or small talk—is an arrangement that worked pretty darn well for decades.
The team would win and they'd do the "Lambeau Leap", or bar crawl with the Stanley Cup as we reveled in our mutual love for the outcome. The team would lose and they'd go do a post-game interview, while we drowned our sorrows and cursed their inability to feed Lebron or hold the blue-line. One thing we can all agree on the morning after: it was good, that fans didn't have a direct line to the athlete.
There's No Longer Something Best Left Unsaid (Or Unseen)
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Long before technology gave humanity the ability to broadcast their thoughts and images at nearly the speed of light, athletes (like the rest of us) had no trouble 'going there' when situation absolutely called for not going anywhere close to the same proverbial zip code. Heck, former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson turned it into an art-form.
Between Twitter and Instagram, not only has over-sharing become so common among athletes and their fans that the bar keeps raising for what is considered newsworthy, it's turned the act of accidentally posting a shot of their genitals into a thing that happens.
Breaking News Is Pervasive and Relentless
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Guess how I found out Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston decided he would enter the 2015 NFL Draft?
Well, my television was tuned to ESPN, laptop open and in front of me and my iPhone charging next to me; so in the span of about 15 seconds, approximately five apps on my phone sent the device into a convulsive rage with notifications that began with "BREAKING NEWS", while my Twitter feed began to fill with the same information, which was then conveyed by the ESPN ticker.
It didn't stop there, a few minutes later, I opened Facebook and my newsfeed was pregnant with original and shared posts on the "BREAKING NEWS," which was reiterated by a handful of messages sent to my phone by friends. Not to be outdone, Twitter landed the knockout punch with the first round of retweets of the original "BREAKING NEWS."
I love how information is so available, all the time, but I think we might all go mad.
Anything Qualifies as Sports News
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Social media is like a bottomless trough of sloppy information, regardless of it's value or relevance. In terms of sports journalism, some people believe all the fruit hangs low if they're one see it first on Twitter.
These churning, 24/7 outlets for potential breaking news is tantalizing for reporters, because their sources—athletes, their friends and family, coaches and staff—use it and present a real, albeit risky opportunity for news.
But, more often than not, the whole thing is convoluted, creating the perception that talking about someone else's reporting or seeing something unconfirmed posted that turned into real news, is the act of journalism.
Perhaps, we need that old news cycle, even if its just for false starts.
It Gives Imaginary Things a Platform
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Oh good. This Tony the Tiger has a check-mark; so now I know the real deal is the one actually posting these putrid tweets about "sports" and not some impostor.
Oh good. Another "Evil (fill in the blank)" parody account. Almost as good as Evil Dan Snyder (who really should trade handles with the real version), or Evil Mike Tomlin.
People generally overestimate how funny, or clever they are, and corporations generally overestimate the ability of their brand to shift gears and become some lame, depersonalized version of Paul Rudd without being annoying. And in the social media universe, there are just enough people who will enable them, either genuinely or ironically, to make them go all in.
It Killed the Mystique of the Professional Athlete
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The scandal is by no means a 21st Century invention, so history has its share of once-beloved athletes and coaches who fall from grace. But there really is no precedent for how social media has pulled the curtain back on men and women who were once considered heroes.
No one ever believed former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling was a leading thinker on the science of evolution, or mankind's purpose, but we believed in the bloody sock and his near-mythical performance in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees.
And who knows what to believe when it comes to Manti Te'o?
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