Social media: Is it worth the headache?
Published: 8/8/2012 6:31 AM
Last Modified: 8/7/2012 11:17 PM
Here’s the dilemma facing university athletic departments across the country: Is social media worth the headache?
Countless offensive tweets from student-athletes would prompt one to say no. Others say those posts – and occasionally equally tasteless Facebook updates – could be prevented.
“Used well, social media can be of benefit to both the student-athlete and the team or program,” said Kevin DeShazo, who as the founder of Oklahoma City-based Fieldhouse Media is working with more than two dozen programs this fall. “It has to start with education.”
Oklahoma State’s basketball players, for instance, go through annual training with a social-media expert, a team spokesman said. But what happens when that method fails?
A tweet from OSU sophomore guard Cezar Guerrero on Tuesday night read: “Gas is 4.39$ a gallon and girls still think we comin over just to "chill".. Funniest thing I've heard!!!!”
The line has recently been circulating on Twitter, but given that teammate Darrell Williams was convicted two weeks ago of two counts of rape by instrumentation and one count of sexual assault, does it not seem questionable?
The Cowboys’ spokesman said no one from the university monitors players’ tweets, most likely because no such monitoring position exists on staff and the current employees simply don’t have enough time to devote to it.
Fieldhouse Media provides a web-based service that alerts administrators to offensive tweets, but most administrators aren’t on Twitter and may not see the need for monitoring, especially if it is going to cost them more money.
There's always the argument that the athletes are just kids. Maybe, but that doesn't make it OK. And their tweets don’t have to be in poor taste to reflect negatively on the university. We’ve all seen ones with jacked-up grammar, terrible spelling and zero punctuation.
So is the answer to ban athletes from social media altogether? If so, this tweet from OSU football walk-on Yves Batoba wouldn’t have caught my eye less than an hour after Guerrero’s did: “Going to the stadium before the sun rises, and leaving while the sun is going down. #CampLife #GoPokes #LiveOrange”
This is a debate on which I’m undecided. Is there a clear-cut solution? Let me know what you think in the comments section below.
Written by
Kelly Hines
Sports Writer
