Editor’s note: re-running this today, in the wake of the news that Brandon Wimbush has officially transferred to Central Florida, and will play his final season of college football at UCF.
The adverse effects of social media are being further studied everyday. As the alarming results of these findings continue to gain more publicity, social media usage has started to stagnate. Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter have stopped growing. Only Instagram is maintaining steady growth right now.
Brandon Wimbush plays one of the highest profile and thus, most scrutinized positions in all of sports, quarterback at Notre Dame. He’s currently off of social media, and at Notre Dame Media Day on Wednesday he explained why.
“I don’t,” Wimbush responded to a question about how he mentally processes the non-stop of analysis of his game and his performances.
“I really got off social media, so I’m allowing that to be its own entity, and to understand that I’m in the present moment..It’s something that I felt like I should move on, and discover new habits.”
Wimbush had a poor practice on Saturday, but reaction to it was overblown. It comes with the territory as a Notre Dame QB1- a few errant throws in a practice session and people start freaking out, and not in a good way.
Wimbush felt it benefitted him in the spring to quit social media, but he got back on it in the summer. Then before camp he kind of veered off of it again, due to “reading all the information that’s going, I’m going to have bad days, and you guys (the media) are going to be there, it’s going to get tweeted out.”
“Staying away from it is definitely helping me for sure,” he continued.
“As a quarterback you already have so much going on, especially at this school that you don’t need another thing on your plate that’s not going to help you, so it’s one less thing that I have to factor in and deal with.”
Brandon Wimbush made it clear that he’s not just talking about the haters, trolls and criticism. The acolytes and the excessive praise can have negative consequences too.
“It’s not helping me if I have a good day to read that I had a good day because you can go back and watch film and there’s so much more that you can correct.”
As we said before, being a starting quarterback at the University of Notre Dame is as high profile a position as you’ll find in sports. Wimbush was asked what is something that comes with this status that a person can’t really understand until they have experienced it first hand.
“It’s pressure if you put it upon yourself, but it’s a privilege, the obligations and duties that come with being the quarterback- you have to always be on your A-game, not matter what, and everyone’s watching you, it’s another level when you’re here.”
He was also asked by a reporter is playing QB at Notre Dame is “fun.”
“100%” he responded. “It’s fun and it’s an honor, because it’s one, there’s only one and I don’t think there’s a better position in the country on a sports team.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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