OVER-THE-TOP AND OUT-OF-LINE
Everyone is entitled to an opinion.
But, in my opinion, some shouldn’t be expressed, and many others shouldn’t be taken seriously.
I’m sharing these thoughts partly because there has been a lot of talk over here in England about the emotional well-being of professional football players who get abused on social media. But I’m writing about this today mainly because the stress caused by that kind of input can be a problem for people in all areas of life. And because I think we have the power to do something about it.
At the moment, the debate over here centres around defender Trent Alexander-arnold who was left out of England’s Nation’s Cup team, which is the next to last squad to be named before this year’s World Cup. The Liverpool star is widely regarded as one of the best attacking right backs in the world. But a great deal has been written to defend the England manager’s decision because many people think Alexander-arnold doesn’t do enough defending himself.
The press coverage has centred on opinions, but in this case I feel most of them have been fair comment since national team selection should be open to debate. The social media scrutiny of the 24-year-old defender has been made up of opinions as well, but many of the posts have been over-the-top and out-of-line.
The big difference between the national media and social media is that newspaper, radio and tv sports departments employ editors to ensure offensive material doesn’t get published or broadcast, but Facebook, Instagram and Twitter do not. The criticism of Alexander-arnold has not been as nasty as what happened to the England players who missed spot-kicks in the penalty shootout against Italy in the last European Championship final, but it highlights the same problems.
Many people today spend a lot of time posting opinions about things they know very little about, and a lot of people like to read everything others have to say about them. And, unfortunately, some people seem to get pleasure out of dragging other people down.
Fortunately for professional football players, their teams usually provide support networks to help them put the negative material into context. But for the rest of the people who use social media, that’s not always easy to do, especially when there are a lot of posts to read.
Actually, I’m just guessing about that because I don’t use social media, but I do know how easy it is to get caught up in reading reports on the internet and getting sucked into jumping from one link to the next. And I do know for sure that it is possible to function in today’s world without being connected all the time or checking on what others have to say about you.
So, instead of adding my voice to the call for more policing of what gets posted on the various forums, I’d rather point out to social media users that they have the final say on what and how much they choose to read.
It really is possible to ignore social media posts, and it’s even possible to turn-off our phones.
And that’s not just my opinion; both those options are facts.