If you were now a professional footballer ...

[New Forester]

Would you be on social media?

Me? No.

[blue architect]

You're here,
so obviously not a Pro Footballer NF
Neither am I, it seems

[Weybridge]

I think common sense should dictate 'no', but I understand why it's done. When not watching Pompey, I'm a freelance matchday photographer for the Non League Paper, and Staines Town FC. At this level, social media is quite important for career progression. I'm frequently asked for matchday images for personal profiles and status updates etc, especially if they've had a good game.

Playing the game of your life in front of 150 people on a cold Tuesday night in the middle of nowhere isn't going to draw any attention unless you do it yourself. Yet in fairness, its equally about bigging up your team-mates than shameless self-promotion. A decent half-season at rung 8 on the ladder can be enough to grab a contract at rung 7 but it often needs social media to sell it. There's not enough word of mouth otherwise.

I guess the question is at what point do you switch off the social media, or at least hand off the running of the account to an agent or manager?

I think if you've been at a major club since a young age, its probably handled better and you'll have better connections in place and access to professional social media advice. For those breaking in from the extreme edges of organised football, networking and self-promotion is more or less essential to build a career, like any other.

[Dinksy]

Trouble with some people who crave the limelight is that they want the bouquets without the brickbats. The moment someone dents their ego with a little criticism they immediately cast themselves as a victim and whine about being 'trolled'.
It's simple really: famous or not, if you can't be grown up about it, you should stay off social media.

[Sam_Brown]

I get it from a marketing point of view. You have your fans and want to let them know when your next album is out or when tickets go on sale for a gig.

But outside of that always found it a very toxic place. Why you’d want to go on Twitter to have discussions with people I don’t get.

Twitter deletes millions of fake accounts every day. Says in this link they got rid of 60 million in a few months not too long ago. Why anyone would want to subject themselves to that is beyond me as chances are the person your arguing with is either a bot or paid user with an agenda.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technolo ... owth-risk/

On the side of being offended / offending people... there are people out there who seek to go out to troll people and say the most heinous things. I think we can all agree rape threats or death threats shouldn’t be tolerated nor things that promote terrorism etc. On the other side there are definitely people who like to get offended over the smallest thing and scream about it. I’m all for respecting people but if someone wants to consider themselves a toaster and gets offended because I accidentally call them something else I don’t have time for that. Maybe if we’d removed the anonymity of it maybe it would be a more pleasant place and people would be less likely to cause trouble either way.

[Pompey Penguin]

There is nothing about "being grown-up" that means you have to accept disgusting racist, sexist and homophobic abuse. We are not talking about marginal "having a joke" stuff here but outright, death and rape threats to people and their families.

The sad thing is that the government could stop this in short order if they wanted to, but they don't (for some reason). All they have to do is give social media companies the same responsibilities as print media owners and editors. I predict that in no time algorithms would be developed to eliminate this stuff, despite the social media companies complaining now that it is too difficult. They make big enough profits to employ thousands of moderators to check anything flagged, delete and close accounts.

[pompeygunner]

Bottom line is they're people just like us, so why should they be any different. So if I was then yes I would.

[Sam_Brown]

Bottom line is they're people just like us, so why should they be any different. So if I was then yes I would.

I think this works on both ends. They are just human so should be able to use Social Media but also they shouldn't be targets for abuse just because they are famous and any abuse is just seen as "part of the role" of being famous.

I used to work in a school just as facebook and twitter were becoming the power houses they are today and unfortunately cyber bullying was rife in the early days. Unfortunately the general opinion back then of some teachers was "if you don't want to be bullied don't go on social media" which I think sends completely the wrong message to both the person being bullied and the person doing the bullying. I don't think that's an acceptable answer to the problem of kids bullying on the internet and don't think it should be the right attitude to take towards adults doing the same.

[Dinksy]

There is nothing about "being grown-up" that means you have to accept disgusting racist, sexist and homophobic abuse. We are not talking about marginal "having a joke" stuff here but outright, death and rape threats to people and their families.

The sad thing is that the government could stop this in short order if they wanted to, but they don't (for some reason). All they have to do is give social media companies the same responsibilities as print media owners and editors. I predict that in no time algorithms would be developed to eliminate this stuff, despite the social media companies complaining now that it is too difficult. They make big enough profits to employ thousands of moderators to check anything flagged, delete and close accounts.

The context of my post is very clear. I'd rather you didn't clumsily try to link what I said to your examples which obviously was not what I was talking about.

[Sam_Brown]

There is nothing about "being grown-up" that means you have to accept disgusting racist, sexist and homophobic abuse. We are not talking about marginal "having a joke" stuff here but outright, death and rape threats to people and their families.

The sad thing is that the government could stop this in short order if they wanted to, but they don't (for some reason). All they have to do is give social media companies the same responsibilities as print media owners and editors. I predict that in no time algorithms would be developed to eliminate this stuff, despite the social media companies complaining now that it is too difficult. They make big enough profits to employ thousands of moderators to check anything flagged, delete and close accounts.

The context of my post is very clear. I'd rather you didn't clumsily try to link what I said to your examples which obviously was not what I was talking about.

I can't speak for PP but I took from your post that you were saying if can't take being trolled you shouldn't be on social media. I don't agree with that. I didn't agree with it when students were being cyberbullied and told to stay off the net I don't agree if it's adults on the other end as well. Obviously "trolled" is very subjective but you get my point.

[Dinksy]

I have made it very clear what I mean. In my post it says 'a little criticism' - a different world from "disgusting racist, sexist and homophobic abuse". And the context is those who court fame. Again that is very clear. There is nothing ambiguous there so there is no need for mischievous spinning of my words to suggest I mean otherwise.

[Sam_Brown]

[BlueinPLtwenty]

If I were a Footballer now, I`d close all my Social Media accounts. I would practise, practise, practise and practise some more to make me a better player. The Stuart Doling story is classic, so many Youngsters get to a level and think they`ve made it. Then They think they have to just turn up and the world is their oyster.