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Andrew Ovsepyan
Professor Noh
English 114A
2 December 2015
Stop Athletes from Using Social Media
Social media has advanced throughout the years. Sites like Facebook have gone from
starting off only for college students to being used by anyone with an email account. Social
media sites are a useful tool for connecting with friends and catching up on the latest news, but it
also comes with many negatives. It is especially negative to athletes of all levels. Every single
tweet gets picked apart and one wrong tweet can cost an athlete money or a scholarship. Being
an athlete on any level, collegiate or professional, takes hard work and dedication. Dont put all
of that at risk just because of a single post. With athletes on all levels being monitored and
scrutinized for everything they say on social media, a strict ban should be put on athletes using
any social media sites.
High school athletes should not use social media sites because it will put the athlete's
college scholarships at risk. Cleveland sports reporter Scott Patsko reports, three months later,
Penn State assistant football coach Herb Hand Tweeted about a similar experience, Dropped
another prospect this AM due to his social media presence Actually glad I got to see the real
person before we offered him. (Patsko, 1). Scott Patsko is writing this article to inform high
school athletes who are getting recruited to college for a certain sports to be careful of what they
post because a single tweet can cause athletes to lose their scholarships. This problem happens
everyday to high school athletes across the nation and showcases why high schools should put a
ban on athletes using social media. Many will argue that social media sites help expose athletes

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skills to college coaches. This is true, however, the athlete doesnt need his/her own account to
do this. A team can easily create an account and post highlights of their athletes. High school
athletes have to remember that a scholarship is more important than a 140 character tweet.
Not only can a tweet hurt the athletes chance of getting a scholarship but also social
media can have bad consequences on the athletes mental state. The death threats athletes receive
on social media can affect the mental side of the athletes negatively. One example of an athlete
receiving death threats over Twitter is in an article written by JB Blanchard. He writes,
according to Dan Jenkins from CBS Detroit, ONeill has been receiving tweets from upset fans,
including death threats on since the play happened last night (Blanchard 1). What many people
do not realize is that death threats are a type of cyber-bullying. Do not forget that many of these
athletes are still very young and might not be able to handle the threats they receive online.
Luckily, there has not been any accounts of athletes seriously harming themselves. Are teams
going to wait until it happens to take action? Banning athletes from using social media will help
put a stop to cyber-bullying towards athletes and it should be done now.
There are many that believe that social media is a helpful tool for athletes. According to
Alyssa Kritsch, athletes should have social media accounts because they help raise awareness for
many social causes and connect them with fans. Kritsch argues, not only that, but he, [Russell
Wilson], also uses social [media] to bring awareness to his various charity initiatives, such as the
Russell Wilson Passing Academy, a football camp for inner city and underprivileged children.
Wilson supports the Seattle Childrens Hospital, alongside his teammates, and often posts photos
of the inspiring individuals he meets during his visits (Kritsch 1). Kritsch makes some good
points, but fails to recognize that athletes do not need their own accounts to still do this.
Collegiate and professional sports teams have their own team accounts where they post pictures

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of players with fans and even have times where athletes have Q and A sessions with the fans.
Also, if an athlete wants to promote a charity, they can create a page for the charity and spread
the awareness through that page. Although Kritsch made some good points, the argument didnt
show any real reason why an athlete needs a social media account.
Athletes should be banned from using social media sites because a single tweet the
athlete puts out can cost the player money or even a suspension. Desh Gaurav Sekhri states,
without a PR agent or publicist in the middle, young sportspersons often make beginners
mistakes - ones that can't be withdrawn or reversed. Act in haste, repent at the speed of light.
Issues include the invasion of privacy and very little control over the use of the athletes'
intellectual property or personal thoughts (Sekhri 1). Sekhri writes this article to show readers
that athletes aren't perfect and have slip ups on social media too. The difference between a
professional athlete and a normal person having a slip up is that the athlete will get scrutinized
and punished for the post. In the same article, Sekhri makes a good counterargument when he
says no doubt, the pros of being social media savvy are numerous - global outreach,
international fan base, interactive and personalized relationships with a diverse fan base, and the
opportunity to initiate social and cultural revolutions with social media for those athletes who
transcend the field of play. (Sekhri 1). Although a good counter, it fails to see that athletes can
not be monitored every second by their representatives or even their parents. An athlete can be
caught up in the moment after a loss and tweet something he/she would not tweet out in a normal
setting. The dangers of a single tweet can cost an athlete money or give them a bad rep so
banning the use of social media by athletes is the right thing to do.
Athletes use social media as a platform to reach fans and talk about their adventures in
sports. Unfortunately, it does not always turn out the way the athletes want it to. It is hard to

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watch promising athletes get scrutinized by the media for a single meaningless tweet. Banning
them from using social media will help keep this problem to a minimum. The fan connection will
be lost a little but the coach or the team can find another way to reach fans. It is important to
keep these young minds from sabotaging their blooming careers by keeping them from saying
something in the moment that they will regret later. Fans and even organizations forget that
athletes will make mistakes throughout their careers and need rules to help limit those mistakes.
Banning social media sites from being used by athletes will help save many athletes from ruining
their public images and being scrutinized by the fans.

Work Cited Page

Blanchard, JB. "Michigan Punter Is Getting Death Threats after Botched Snap." SunTimes
National. SunTimes National, 18 Oct. 2015. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.
Kritsch, Alyssa. "Six Top Athletes Using Social Media to Dominate." Hootsuite Social Media
Management. Hootsuite, 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.
Patsko, Scott. "How Social Media Behavior of High School Athletes Can Negatively Impact
NCAA Recruiting: Photos, Polls National Signing Day 2015." Cleveland.com. Cleveland.com, 3
Feb. 2015. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

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Sekhri, Desh Gaurav "(A) Social Medium: The Risk of Using Social Media for Athletes." Best
Media Info 20 June 2011. General OneFile. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.