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The Negative Effects of Social Media in Sports

Introduction

Sport fans tend to develop engaging and unique associations or relationships with their various porting teams in America both online and offline, where sports such as the NBA, the NFL, the MLS, and other sports have become an important part of the country’s pop culture. Literature on sports marketing indicate that sports consumers develop high fandom levels, identify themselves with various sports teams, and have significant emotional attachment towards the sports teams that they associate themselves with. Such high-engaged fans of the different sports get involved in different behaviors that revolve around their teams on social media. These activities include social media fan interactions on matters relating to their teams of interest, spread of various pieces of information on their teams and the players of their teams and other related teams, and reading and sharing interesting and important information regarding the teams that they support (Vale & Fernandes, 2019). Social media acts as a very important platform of engagement between sport organizations and their fans. This is because most of the fans of the various sports are always very engaged and this has proved to be a very important marketing channel for sports organizations because they leverage on this high level of fan engagement.

According to Meng et al. (2015), social media acts as an important platform that sport managers use to enhance engagement and commitment of their fans. This is done by proving them with new and interactive social media experiences. It is through these virtual spaces that various sporting teams can have a direct communication with fans. Additionally, fans from different parts of the world are provided with an opportunity through which they can communicate with one another in real time (Meng et al., 2015). Fans that have strong team identification have been shown to be very beneficial to sporting entities and organizations. These benefits include reduced price sensitivity and a greater propensity to not only attend gaming events but also purchase various merchandise. Such fans are also likely to always be loyal to their teams, irrespective of the ways in which their teams may perform at different times of the season, or in different sporting seasons.

Meng et al. (2015) point out that social media platforms have developed, grown, and evolved, constantly, over the last two decades. This can be attributed to the rising and receding popularity of the various social media sites. The main facilitator of increased social media use, however, can be attributed to fact that the United States and around the globe has seen an unprecedented increase in social media accessibility through the various personal devices, which include tablets, smart phones, and the other personal devices that facilitate social communication without any constraints of location or time. This, according to Meng et al. (2015), enables sports organizations as well as sports fans to communicate information to millions of people around the world about their experiences as well as other pieces of information within a very short timeframe. The fact that sporting organizations benefit immensely through the engagement of fans through social media explains why most of these organizations invest a lot of dollars on social media marketing platforms that peal to their fan involvement.

Problem Statement

Over the last two decades, social media has seen a drastic evolution with regards to its use and its prominence in the America culture (DiMoro, 2015). This is because social media sites such as AOL chat rooms, AIM instant messaging, and MySpace glittering profiles have been taken over my more prominent social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. Information is rapidly being spread through Twitter hashtags and Facebook’s personalized communities. This evolution has seen social media get woven deeply in the American sports culture. The one strength of social media is that is a very influential catalyst in fueling ideas and spreading information about people owing to the fact that millions of people can be able to share information around the globe within record time. According to DiMoro (2015), social media has affected American sports profoundly.

In 2015, about one-fifth or 20.5 percent of American internet users were expected to be having Twitter accounts. This was an increase considering the view that this number was 15.2 percent in the year 2012 (DiMoro, 2015). The other important thing about the influence of social media in sports is that a given athlete’s social media behavior can have a significant impact on the ways in which that given athlete is views by the fans or the public. It tends to influence the public’s opinion of the involved sports personality.

It is important to acknowledge that every sports association, league, and team has at least a social media profile; and Twitter is the social media profile that is mostly employed by American sports organizations and personalities. Sports professionals and minors have social media platforms because social media is a very influential force in the current sports culture as well as the American pop culture. Twitter, specifically, acts as virtual sports bar where most fans prefer to look at during sports or after sports to check updates regarding the involved teams. It is because of this that the behavior of a specific athlete or a team on social media can have a direct significant influence perception of the fans of the team or the specific individual in the team (DiMoro, 2015). Most importantly, sports trends that are discussed on social media, such as Championship and Playoff games, Pro League Drafts, NFL Free Agency, and Trade Deadlines tend to have a staying power. This owes to the fact that social media is a very influential vehicle that stirs sports talks today as well as the ways in which fans interact with their fellow fans, sports personalities, players, and teams.

According to Cooke (n.d.), one of the factors that have led to a change in the way sports information is spread as well as the general spectrum of sports journalism is the evolution that has been witnessed in the field of technology which has promoted increased information availability and immediacy. We now live in a time where people want to access information fast. This can be seen in the increase in the access of internet sites and a decrease in magazine and newspaper sales. There is also the issue of increased pressure and competition. Journalists and other social media users try to stay competitive by reporting information that have less connection to professional sports. Such information includes professional players’ personal lives, the coaching decisions of managers, the hiring decisions of owners, and other similar information. There is also the problem of irresponsible journalism whereby some of the journalists use the social media to spread information about personal lives of people involved in sports, rather than focusing on professional athlete’s talents. They also prefer to share information on controversial issues that would increase the engagement of their customers rather than looking for facts on the matters at hand.

The fact that the social media allows for the spread of information about sports organizations, personalities, and athletes at a very fact rate between among social media users around the globe means that the release of any wrongful or inaccurate information could lead to the tarnishing of any of the parties’ reputation in a split of a second once such information is released. This can lead to wrongful terminations or even loss of sponsorships deals for the affected parties. This is the main problem associated with the fast pace with which information can spread on social media.

Justification of the Study

Past studies on social media and sports have primarily focused on social media and sports marketing. One of such studies is a research review by Filo et al. (2014). The review categorizes the past research on sports and social media into three broad categories. One of these broad categories involves the use of social media in sports from a strategic point of view. This category of research involves the function and role of social media from a sports brand perspective. From the strategic point of view, studies have been done to uncover how sports organizations employ the use of social media to engage fans, to communicate to their fans and to enhance communication among fans, for branding purposes and for the purpose of relationship development.

The second broad category of studies involving social media and sports has focused on sports and social media from an operational perspective. These studies have focused on the ways in which sports organizations and sports personalities and brands employ the use of social media on their day-to-day basis. Generally, past studies have been done to show that operational use of social media enables brands to interact with their consumers in a manner that is not only entertaining but also engaging. The third categories of studies, which have been carried on sports and social media, is user-focused in nature; and have been aimed at examining the motivations for sports fans, their perceptions, and the preferences regarding the use of social media. They have also focused on user profile or demographic usage of social media among sports fans (Filo et al., 2014).

Looking at the past studies that have been done in this field, it is clear that there is a gap in research with regard to the negative impacts that social media can have in sports and this is why this paper is aimed at closing the gap by uncovering important information on the negative ways in which social media can have in sports owing to the fact that sharing and transmitting information on social media is much faster compared to the traditional channels of communication, such as newspapers and magazines.

Background Information

The ever-increasing number of mobile users and increased use of social media has drastically changed the way various things are considered in the society today. This includes the way people get engaged in or with sports in today’s society. There a wide range of social media platforms that include Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc. where people use social media tools conveniently on a daily basis. Social media is now a very important tool that enables people to distribute different contents and attract new consumers and readers. It also creates more participation among people in the society. There a number of areas in which social media have had a significant impact on sports. Good examples include sports marketing and communications (Ma, 2018).

Social media is obviously one of the important tools in the 21st century for athletes, fans, sports organizations, and sports themselves. Since the number of social media users has been continually increasing in the past several years, this means that more people can now engage in different sports, follow their favorite teams and athletes, and access the most up to date sports information instantaneously (Ma, 2018). Secondly, increased social media use has benefited sports organizations in a number of ways that include increasing their sales, reducing the costs of advertizing and marketing, and help them better relationships with their fans and the general public. Sports organizations can employ the use of social media to influence two-way conversations involving the members of the pubic and fans in particular; and also build their involved communities under this mission (Ma, 2018). Thirdly, the attraction associated with social media enables sport organization and teams as well as athletes to connect with their sports fans. Athletes also benefits from social media use because it enables them to build themselves as personal brands. It also helps them with personal promotion and to connect with their loyal fans. Comparing it to the traditional media, one can see that social media cost less, but its effect is more consistent and efficient.

According to Ma (2018), however, despite the above mentioned benefits of social media in sports, there are a number of negative effects and impacts associated with the use of social media in sports. One such a negative impact is that users can be able to spread bad content in a very short time, something that has never been experienced before. Secondly is that some players and athletes may not be well acquainted with how to use social media in an appropriate manner. In a similar manner, negative comments made by fans may have negative effects on team or individual athlete performances (Ma, 2018).