Five years ago you may have caught me in an argument over Julio Jones’s stats compared to Antonio Brown’s, or how Matt Ryan is an ‘elite quarterback’ with horrible luck, not a bad QB! Five years ago, perhaps I would make a flippant comment in response to someone’s ‘disregard’. Back then, social media was more in control of me than I was it.
Right about five years ago, I left Facebook for good. I found I was using up much of my time being upset with random people (and family members) that never planned to listen to begin with. I figured being heard may not be worth it if it doesn’t lead to productive conversations. My mental health legitimately improved after disconnecting from Facebook. I found time for other things.
Nowadays I stick to Twitter, the bird app, which, of course, comes with its own set of challenges. With moving away from my previous account (of significantly more followers) it has made posting a bit more difficult, reaching out more harrowing. Rest assured, I plan to circumvent fears and enter the world of sports media engagement. I hope to accomplish this through any means (besides trolling), and am willing to discuss any athletic event or activity.
In the next 5 years, I suspect a few more discord-esque platforms might emerge, as people begin to find it possible to make consistently positive connections when the parameters of social networking match up with the utility of mobile phones.
If I could wave my magic wand and change one thing about modern sports communications, it would be to enable everyone to think from any perspective, just enough so that they could forgive the next person. Much too often the forward conversation that social media can be is cut off due to reactionary media decisions. If we can stop and think from the perspective of our biggest, meanest opponent, then imagine how we might trick our brains into more and more acts of kindness. Far too often, a person’s day is actually made worse due to the content they viewed.