The Effect of Social Media On Athletes

Yuri Wright, a prime example of the Twitter downturn.

Most of us have learned how to deal with social media by now, both in positive and negative ways. However, that is most of us, but there are still many people, including athletes, that have not learned how to control their emotions and feelings.

Many athletes in today's day and age are tweeting things that will not only hurt them now, but also hurt them down the road. Several of them tweet racist, sexual, and/or obscure things, which colleges can see and monitor. Some colleges may not have a problem with it, but many do.

Just take the situation of Yuri Wright just over a year ago. Wright was a top high school cornerback from New Jersey, who found out just how fast scholarships can disappear from tweeting and social media. Wright was being recruited by some of the top division-one football programs in the country, including Michigan, Rutgers, Notre Dame, and Colorado. However, there was one thing that these colleges disliked about one of their top recruits, and it was his social media usage. There were several instances where Wright would tweet racist or sexual things, which led to several warnings from the school officials. Several sexual tweets were seen on his account, such as sexual tweets which will not be repeated, but other racist tweets about his dad driving by members of the Jewish religion, and splashing them in the face with water. One tweet later, and he was expelled from his Catholic High School in Ramsey, New Jersey, and had several of his college football offers withdrawn. Michigan stopped recruiting Wright, who ended up at Colorado after taking his Twitter account off of the internet.

This is just one prime example of how crucial Twitter and Facebook are to colleges, whether you're a division-one athlete or not, it can really come back to haunt you. Catching up with family and friends is one thing, which is how most people use their accounts, but instances like these teach you how to keep your mouth shut and emotions in check.

Another example of Twitter being a distraction for big time college athletes is the fan tweeting, or negative tweets to the player after poor performances. After positive performances, you'll get positive responses from fans. Which tweets do you respond to? If you only respond to some, the fans who did not get a response view you as cocky. Social media is what leads to the downturn of several current, or soon to be, college athletes, and it needs to be properly handled.