Is social media killing athletes?

[SShore]

Interesting article in Outside Mag. Something that I have been considering for a while.
https://www.outsideonline.com/22702...ine&utm_term=Social Media Is Killing Athletes

 

[scott43]

Errmm.no.

 

[Chris Walker]

I saw evidence that more action athletes are getting hurt/killed. But I didn't see an analysis of the levels of participation in these sports. I think an increase in the number of head injuries being reported is scant evidence of an increase in the number of head injuries occuring . Who from my generation remembers getting their "bell rung" and being told to shake it off and get back out there?

I saw evidence that action athletes use social media, but I didn't see a case for a causal link between this and accidents.

I'm convinced that what the author calls "progression" has been a thing since the first cave man said "Hey Grog, hold my mammoth tea, and watch this!"

So, I kind of think this article is so much hype and not really uncovering an important new danger. At one point people probably blamed outdoor adventure magazines for athlete deaths, as people had to go bigger and bigger to be immortalized in their glossy pages. Maybe they're just trying to shift the blame.

 

[SShore]

I did find it interesting that social media seemed to be the theme of the article based on the title and then there was very scant mention of it or its effects in the article itself.

 

[Sibhusky]

You could just as easily blame equipment improvements. Better equipment=more participants, more attempts to break the next envelope, ability to go higher/faster/deeper/longer/whatever.

 

[crgildart]

Can we blame the Tide Pod poisonings on social media? A girl in my grade school died from huffing Pam cooking spray in the 70s. That said, I'd argue that the reach and exposure of these dangerous stunts encourages more adolescents and young adults to try them. Take the kid who fell off the sky scraper last month for example. Would he have been doing that without the motivation of increased social media exposure??

 

[fatbob]

Isn't it just the same as the stuff we had a few years ago - are energy drinks killing athletes?

You ask the athletes and they'd rather have the cash/profile etc that the exposure and sponsors provide than have to work a regular stiff job. Listen to the Mike Powell podcasts - not a single one says I was doing things I didn't want to do only for the money, they were igenerally nterested in progression for its own sake and greteful for the money that allowed them to do it.

So seatbelts or helmets or whatever re saving people from themselves. I bet ski bums were killing themselves long before social media came around.

 

[cantunamunch]

Errmm.no.

Am I the only one who saw the thread title and thought "Oh geez, don't tell me some Strava KOM chaser caused a fatality"?

 

[scott43]

Am I the only one who saw the thread title and thought "Oh geez, don't tell me some Strava KOM chaser caused a fatality"?

"Mountain biker killing it on Marin County downhill wipes out entire family..beats Strava KOM in process."

 

[squill]

Marc Peruzzi turns into a industry provocateur with these op-ed's published right before the annual trade shows. Same $h^t different year. He pulled the same thing right before OR in 2014 with "Can Snowboarding Be Saved," which ruffled a lot of feathers.
https://www.outsideonline.com/1921346/can-snowboarding-be-saved

 

[David]

It's definitely impacting the respect that people have for them! For me there are some I have more respect for and some I have lost all respect for...

 

[Goose]

I think social media has had negative affects on everyone and not at all just athletes. The average person is also being influenced into plain stupidity. There is social media bullying, slandering, daring, and outright idiotic suggestions , etc, etc. Least not forget the ability to simply and properly communicate in person or even on the talking phone in general is almost non existent nowadays. I might assume its no coincidence that respect , and general common courtesies and behavior are of little regard nowadays too. Is that tied to it?

Just sayin....it seems for all the great things (the positives) we have gotten from the modern age of computers/electronics at out fingertips there is a negative for every one of them. And social communication may be the one area with the worst negatives of all. Starting with the old chat rooms of the 90's to texting and tweeting, and face booking, instagraming and picturing, and heck even youtube or similar sites, etc, etc, etc. there is simply so much that is so negative for every single positive that they bring. That's my take on it fwiw.

 

[at_nyc]

First we blame TV. Then the computer. Now social media?

Bad parenting is bad parenting. Parents who can't use social media for their positive obviously can't help their kids on how to use it properly.

THIS very forum, is a social media! Get off it before it kills you!!!

 

[François Pugh]

Well I can see a valid hypothesis there. Too bad there was nothing better related to the hypothesis in the article.

In the good old days, before social media and youtube, if you did something dangerous and exciting to satisfy your adrenaline addiction you may have told a few folk and maybe one of them would have been encouraged to do the same stupidly dangerous thing. For example, when I wore a younger man's clothes, a patroller very familiar with a particular mountain area showed me a chute he had be contemplating skiing. I skied it (mostly straigh-tlined it 'cause I didn't know how to turn really well back then) and showed him my tracks, I didn't tell anyone else. The following year, encouraged by my having skied it, he got up the nerve to ski it. He thought it safer to ski it with proper technique, but apparently at about turn number 180, he messed up. He busted himself up pretty bad, broken back, two brokent legs, etc., stopped skiing for a few years, left the patrol, was never the same. I can see someone skiing that chute today, posting it on youtube and encouraging hundreds of folk to do the same, with maybe 10 taking the challenge.

The trouble with the article, is it appeals to the logic of the hypothesis without doing any hypothesis testing.

 

[Fishbowl]

Well I can see a valid hypothesis there. Too bad there was nothing better related to the hypothesis in the article.

In the good old days, before social media and youtube, if you did something dangerous and exciting to satisfy your adrenaline addiction you may have told a few folk and maybe one of them would have been encouraged to do the same stupidly dangerous thing. For example, when I wore a younger man's clothes, a patroller very familiar with a particular mountain area showed me a chute he had be contemplating skiing. I skied it (mostly straigh-tlined it 'cause I didn't know how to turn really well back then) and showed him my tracks, I didn't tell anyone else. The following year, encouraged by my having skied it, he got up the nerve to ski it. He thought it safer to ski it with proper technique, but apparently at about turn number 180, he messed up. He busted himself up pretty bad, broken back, two brokent legs, etc., stopped skiing for a few years, left the patrol, was never the same. I can see someone skiing that chute today, posting it on youtube and encouraging hundreds of folk to do the same, with maybe 10 taking the challenge.

The trouble with the article, is it appeals to the logic of the hypothesis without doing any hypothesis testing.

I would be willing to bet that someone reading your story is now Jonesing to find your chute and conquer it. The fact that you skied it, and someone else got badly injured, only ups the challenge. Considering that ipatroller probably makes it a double dog dare.

Social media is a powerful tool when it gets the word out to so many. That one guy you told, has now turned into hundreds/thousands.

 

[Muleski]

My adult kids have friends who are pro skiers......call them big mountain skiers, or whatever. These are exceptional skiers, with long backgrounds in the sport. They are also serious adrenaline junkies. When I see one, and have a conversation with him or her, I hear about who he is currently "filming with." You name it....anybody who make ski video. Are they getting paid? Most often no. They are "getting great exposure", which they fool themselves into thinking means future paydays. They measure their compensation in terms of the comp'd equipment that they get, and the trips that they make {free} to shoot for those companies. Great, free skis, boots, clothing, helmet, goggles, etc.

These guys tend to take what my "kids" think are often stupid risks, and it ALL ends up on their various social media accounts. When they are trying to get any cash compensation, the number of followers, or the number of hits are the currency that might, might lead to a tiny paycheck.

These guys{and ladies} struggle to exist, to be honest. Most work in other jobs, when they can, in the summer. But they sure don't make much money, at all. Health insurance? Huh? A couple of my friends {the parents} have really had to come down hard on the 30-somethig kids and explain that no matter what these guys think in their own minds, they ARE NOT PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES, as they are not earning a thin dime. So few earn any money. Any. My friends are basically telling their kids that it's time to get a real job, and a real paycheck. And that's a transition to this crowd.

So, in my direct experience, a lot of these skiers are taking big risks, and the vehicle to get their name out there, and promote that activity, with the goal of trying to monetize it, even a tiny bit, is social media.

And yes, my family has lost a number of friends who were taking big risk, and paid the ultimate price. The cliche phrase that they "died doing what they loved" rings very, very hollow after the second or third funeral that you attend.

Social media like Instagram is so "non real life, non real world" that I hear it's screwing a lot of people up. What people post on Instagram is the highlight reel of the best moments of their life....and neglects the challenges. IMO, that's problematic.

Even with WC athletes, it's a bit "glossy" to say the least.

 

[Core2]

Epic beat this topic to death and the consensus was "yes."

 

[QueueCT]

Athletes have to take bigger risks every year to get the exposure they want. Bigger lines, sketchier conditions, etc. At some point you either have to recognize that your body won't keep up and step aside or you pay the price. A very few of those who won't step aside will do something amazing and get a huge reward ... a very few.

 

[crgildart]

It goes all the way back to gladiators in The Colosseum. Media is media and people have always taken risks to seek fame. People have always used media to be asshats and attack others via whatever form was easiest at the time. Same spit, different day..

 

[dbostedo]

Am I the only one who saw the thread title and thought "Oh geez, don't tell me some Strava KOM chaser caused a fatality"?

"Mountain biker killing it on Marin County downhill wipes out entire family..beats Strava KOM in process."

Are you guys speaking in some kind of code?