Written by The power and evolution of social media continues to grow and have an impact on not just football but all sports especially in the last decade. With social media now becoming such a necessity to people of all ages and how popular it has become majority of people use some sort of social media now adays. However social media has now become even more popular in sports as it’s a platform that can allow fans to communicate and connect with players and also clubs to communicate with fans. Social media has allowed fans to meet with other fans and connect on a deeper level about their mutual interest whether it’s a particular sport or just a club/organisation.
However, although there’s many positives to the evolution of social media and the impact it’s had on sports and how its allowed sports to progress. There are also a lot of negatives on social media not just in football but all sports such as players being racially abused, and players being scrutinised for their sexuality. This has certainly grabbed attention of players and football clubs which has led them to ask social media platforms to try and stop this from happening by letting all social media users verify their profile before having an account. This is something players and clubs have really been passionate about in recent years and have tried to push this to the big social media platforms in order to not just stop the abuse but also help football progress as a sport. The players feel social media is becoming very toxic and it’s becoming a norm for fans op abuse players whether its if they have a bad game or a club suffers a defeat. However, this isn’t just tarnishing the players confidence but also its tarnishing a worldwide multicultural game that many of us all share a passion for. The abuse on social media fans have given to players have many times caused a standstill in the footballing community and left many fans with questions on to why this is happening, and fans should look to support players not bring them down as they are human like the rest of us.
There have been many situations that have occurred in recent years such as the recent Euro 2020 final between England and Italy which seen England players Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho miss crucial penalties. However, this wasn’t the end of this, and the three players were then bombarded on social media with continuous racial abuse even by their own fans and other fans.
With all that being said just a question for thought Is social media becoming a toxic place especially in the sports environment.