Josh Thole is no longer on Twitter.
This alone is not news. I could care less if a player is on Twitter or not.
What is news, however, is the reaction fans have had in regard to his exit, and the kinds of messages he received that led to this whole situation in the first place.
There were the obvious messages from wannabe experts telling Thole how he should approach his at-bats. Many of the messages were of fans voicing their displeasure over his slow start so far this season.
While receiving these kinds of tweets day-in and day-out is undoubtedly annoying, there were particularly nasty messages that contributed to Thole's exit.
They included personal attacks, name-calling, and one tweet in which Thole was asked to "die". Yes, die.
At what point in time did it become acceptable to spew hatred on the Internet?
It's funny how many people suddenly find the ability to speak their mind when protected by a computer screen.
When it was announced that Thole had quit Twitter, a number of Mets fans took to their own Twitter accounts to say that Thole was not mentally tough, and could not handle the criticism.
Fans also argued that athletes should expect harsh comments from fans once they join a network such as Twitter, especially in a town like New York.
First of all, there's a difference between criticism and hateful messages.
Second, here's the wonderful thing about Twitter. It's voluntary. Athletes are not required to use it, and have the right to cancel their account if they so choose.
It has nothing to do with someone being "mentally tough."
Why would anyone, athlete or not, voluntarily stay somewhere where people are constantly sending them nasty messages and telling them how to do their job?
I'm sure it gets old, fast.
Twitter is a way for players to connect and interact with fans, but when fans take to Twitter to call players names and attack them, who can blame any of them for leaving.
This is so well-said, seriously. Somebody had to say this, and I'm so glad you did.
ReplyDeleteI feel horrible for Josh, too. He didn't deserve what people were saying. Nobody deserves that kind of criticism just for having a slow start to the season (if I recall, he had a slow start in Buffalo last year, too - he'll come around). It just depresses me as a baseball fan and a human being how hostile people can get when they know they'll be anonymous and no one can get back to them.
Excellent point. Twitter certainly isn't required, and no one wants to spend valuable time out of their lives dealing with nasty messages. It's amazing to me how little people understand the difference between personal attacks and criticism which I've pointed out before, too.
ReplyDeleteGreat post here!