“Facebook is where we lie to friends, Twitter is where we tell the truth to strangers.”
It’s unknown who first uttered this epigram, but it’s completely untrue these days anyway. Twitter reflected that statement in its early days of 2008, but in 2015 it’s a brave new world of micro-blogged press releases and 140-or-less-character official statements.
“Thoughts and prayers to XYZ everyone, thoughts and prayers.”
Jon Ronson’s must read book So you’ve been publicly shamed often quotes the opening sentence of this article as the tome is a transcendent first draft of social media history.
We’re all still learning when it comes to social media- you, me, Notre Dame Defensive Tackle Jay Hayes.
The four star recruit, and #14 ranked DT nationally (according to Rivals) in his class made a Tweet critical of the ND coaching staff. He has since deleted it. Jay Hayes is disgruntled over his lack of playing time, and his controversial Tweet got him left out of today’s utter annihilation of recently promoted to FBS level UMass.
Hayes Tweeted: “When a coach stops coaching you…that’s when you jus gotta move on.” (Credit Yahoo for the screen shot)
“There has to be responsibility as it relates to social media and you have to think before you hit send,” Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly told Blue andGold.com.
“What you have to do is knock on my door instead of hitting the send button. These are good lessons to be learned. If he has a job at Google and he talks about his boss that way, he’s probably not going to have a job the next day. You try to use them as life lessons.”
“You don’t say, ‘Hey, I’m going to take Twitter away from you.’ You tell him, ‘You need to make better decisions next time or it’s going to impact you when you leave here at Notre Dame.’ We have players that want to get on the field. I had a conversation with Jay. He understands the mistake he made.”
Indeed, “life lessons.”
We’re all still learning life lessons when it comes to using Twitter. Of all sports, Football is by far the most militaristic in nature. Its origins and development are completely inter-twined with the military-industrial complex. Two of the military’s main core values are chain of command and information control.
In the world of 2015 college football, much of that information flows through Twitter, and therefore Jay Hayes is insubordinate in this regard. Coach Kelly reminded everyone of big time college football’s chain of command.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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