Daniel Brey/contributing writer
In late January, a brief exchange between two FIU football players about taking a recruit to a strip club garnered national attention. The team promptly banned all tweets pertaining to FIU football and just like that, social media struck again.
Twitter, along with Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites have student-athletes, coaches and team organizations cautious of every tweet, post, and upload delivered into the dangerous world of personal interpretation.
“It can be a good, or a bad thing,” FIU pitcher Dillon Maya said via Twitter. “Just have to be careful what you put out there.”
Twitter, which has taken the term “A little bird told me…” to the second power, has inherited an infamous reputation for landing athletes and coaches in hot water.
Twitter’s unique privacy policy is significantly less authoritative and much more neglectful of its user’s privacy and friendship associations compared to Facebook and Instagram.
“What is different about Twitter is that it allows people to follow and tweet anyone they want without the other person’s consent,” FIU catcher Alejandro Mangano said. “When emotions run high, especially in sports, this freedom backfires on many players, coaches, and honestly, whoever wants to tweet.”
Although the Twitter bird pecked the FIU football team this past month, other FIU sports programs, such as sand volleyball, have no intention on placing limitations on players who have social media accounts.
“It’s not my place to go into their stuff,” FIU sand volleyball Head Coach Rita Buck-Crockett said. “If I am told that social media has become an issue, then will I get involved.”
Apart from student-athletes, coaches also utilize social media. FIU basketball Head Coach Richard Pitino who declined to comment, is a frequent user of Twitter, using the platform to talk about his team and other FIU sports.
Players and coaches who use social media suggest that although Twitter and other similar sites pose a danger to team chemistry and image, it could be utilized positively just as long as it is handled responsibly.
If not used in a responsible manner, social media can taint a person’s image, attitude and personal life.
“It depends on your use for [social media],” FIU quarterback E.J Hilliard said. “It can be a gift, or a curse.”
Notre Dame University standout linebacker Manti Te’o serves as a prime model of the detrimental effects social media can take on an individual’s personal life and reputation.
Te’o, a Heisman finalist during the 2012 college football season, was tricked into believing a woman who attended Stanford University, fictionally named Lennay Kekua, loved him after he exchanged numerous messages over a social media site. Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the man behind the hoax, led Te’o to believe that she later died from leukemia.
After growing suspicion that Te’o and his unusual love story was fiction, a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo revealed to Te’o he fabricated the entire relationship.
Since the hoax was revealed, Te’o has been the victim of constant criticism, hate messages and daily ridicule from the general public.
“It is saddening to see such a great player suffer because of something that happened over social media,” Mangano said. “Regardless, no one deserves to go through that.”
Twitter beef, a term used for any argument held over Twitter, is the most common form of distraction in professional sports via social media.
In addition, individuals such as Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton serve as an example of how to alienate yourself from a team in one day. He took to Twitter to voice frustration when the Fish traded away several superstars in November, causing friction between him and the front office.
This example is a key reason why student-athletes, such as FIU third baseman Josh Anderson, feel that social media has a time and place.
“I think social media networks are for the social aspects of life,” Anderson said. “The least amount of personal sports [information], the better.”
These incidents bring up the question of whether social media should be noted in conduct policies for athletes and coaches on both a collegiate level and professional stage.
“You just have to be careful,” FIU sand volleyball player Emily Podschweit said. “Whatever you put online is going to get to everybody.”
