Jordan Henderson touched on the negative impact of social media in some depth in an extensive conversation with Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes.
The England international lamented the effect, in particular, that some comments from “the fans or the outside world” had on the young players.
“There are a lot of positives to social media, as we all know, but I think it can have a negative impact on players,” the Reds captain told the High Performance podcast (via YouTube).
“When there’s a loss of form or confidence or whatever and there’s people piling on top of it, which can be tweets or Instagram comments, whatever.
“It’s easy to say ‘just don’t go on social media, delete it,’ but somehow it always seems to find you.
“As a player, especially at the higher level, I would kind of say if it’s your friends saying ‘have you seen this, why are they saying this?’ trying to protect you but coming at you like that.
“Or maybe on the news or when you do interviews and get asked questions, he’ll always find a way for you to know what’s being said, whether it’s from the fans or the outside world, and if it’s a tough period. or time, it’s so hard for players to deal with, especially the youngsters.
“But unfortunately, that happened: a lot of people say it’s an integral part of football, a lot of footballers get a good salary and it comes with the territory. But I guess when you’re a kid, you don’t think about money or you don’t think about being a superstar or people looking up to you. You think about playing soccer.
“As a kid, you only want to be a soccer player because you love playing soccer and you admire the people who are playing at that time.”
There is no doubt that the introduction of such platforms has completely changed the landscape of how footballers interact with fans and commentators off the pitch.
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The amount of emotionally invested following pouring into the sport means that completely negative-free outbursts cannot always be avoided.
That being said, being aware of how our internal monologue will affect players, ESPECIALLY those susceptible to harsh criticism, should be considered by those who use platforms like Twitter.
It’s all very well advising players to leave the platforms in question, but it’s advice that doesn’t address the root of the problem, which is the trolls themselves.
We have repeatedly called for better security measures and controls on social media in the past and it remains imperative that abusive comments can be clearly traced back to a genuine individual who cannot be allowed to benefit from a faceless, nameless profile. .
Bottom line: the onus should not lie with gamers for having a stiff upper lip and taking abuse, but with social media users for not misusing their right to anonymity.
You can check out the clip below, courtesy of the High Performance podcast:
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