Who is that guy on the left and why have I posted this picture from his facebook photos? Does he play in the NFL? What does he have to do with this story? Read on and find out!
All the tweets during and after the NFC Championship game on Sunday have caused quite a stir. I don't think people in general think while tweeting, or doing a status update on facebook, about the fact that everyone in the world could find out what they were thinking at the time. The Jay Cutler situation was the first incident that became a huge story but this has been going on for a while now. With social networking we are truly living in a whole new world.
Two of the 16 Packers on I.R. were tweeting back and forth the other day about how they would not be included in the team picture at the Superbowl because it would be taken on Tuesday and the the injured players don't fly in until Friday. Word quickly got out to the media and it became a controversy that the Packer organization quickly rectified. The team picture will now be taken on Friday. This was an easy fix that possibly would not have happened if there was no twitter.
Gone are the days of having to read about the game after the game is over. You can get play-by-play stats and opinions. Everything is immediate and sometimes conclusions drawn too quickly. To people over 40, like me, this is crazy. I am glad that I am using the Internet for so many different things these days. Some post 40 people don't use computers very often, or even own one, and are really missing out.
I have found through use of facebook that my friends and I are much more brutally honest with each other in facebook comments that we would be in reality, face to face. This can cause some unnecessary disagreements that would be less likely to exist without facebook. As a matter of fact, Paul Eggers (one of our great sportswriters on this blog, pictured above) seems to have two different personalities. In person I think he is an okay guy with only the one big fault (being a Viking fan) but on line...well, I will leave it at that.
Anyway, this new world has some great advantages including things like this blog. No newspaper ever wanted my writings but I can blog all I want. The facebook stuff can be fun and keep friendships alive with miles between us BUT it can also be a huge time waster and one of my New Year's resolutions is to be on facebook less. I am not doing so well so far because I love commenting about the Packers. A week or so after the Superbowl is over I think I will be able to cut down my facebook time. I have a twitter account as well but almost never use it because facebook has already used up my free time. Anyway...I am just kind of curious about what you all think about this new world with the social networking.
How often do you facebook and twitter?
Do you agree about the effects it has on professional sports?
I could be the poster child for Facebook but I don't even have a twitter account. I do agree that there are a lot of advantages to online communication but also some disadvantages. Tone and non verbal communication are lost in online posts and on Facebook but the Cutler case certainly gave fans a very real perspective that we have never been able to witness before.
ReplyDeleteUsually all we get are 30 second sound bites of players politically downplaying any hard feelings they have for fellow players or teammates. Very rarely do we catch a live interview (like the Randy Moss meltdown in New England) where a player is brutally honest when the cameras are rolling. As player after player tweeted about Jay Cutler and his lack of toughness or heart last week, we as fans, for the first time, got a glimpse into how NFL players react to each other. It is easy for me to see now why the new concussion guidelines were so necessary. Players, because of a deep sense of commitment to their teammates or because of peer pressure, seem willing to risk their immediate and long term health to play the game of football.
Whether or not you agree with Cutler and the Bear's decision to keep him out of the NFC Championship game is, in my opinion, a side note. The real story here is the deep level of pressure on professional athletes, especially football players, to put their teams and the game above anything, including their own health.