Social media is changing the way sports are looked at, the way sports are played, and the amount of sports knowledge people receive. Sports are a large part of tradition in America. Whether it be watching the Super Bowl, watching a game in person, or playing football during thanksgiving, sports have always been tradition. So we ask the question, is the world of sports from high school all the way up to professional competition changing due to social media?
HOW SPORTS ARE VIEWED: Social media gives people easy access to information. This can cause athletes to have a bad reputation is some of the most common cases where an athlete is accused of something, it blows up through social media, everyone thinks the athlete did what was said and in some cases a bad reputation is built. Even if the athlete did not do what was being discussed, the rumors still linger in the air. Overall, this part of social media can cause fans to look at athletes with a sense of less respect.
THE WAY SPORTS ARE PLAYED: It has been said that players have changed their actions on the playing surface during events due to the fact that if something small happens, it could trigger a blow up throughout social media, bringing more attention to that certain athlete than they would desire. On the other hand, social media is benefiting sports and how they are played specifically in the college athlete environment by helping spread recruits around the country. Being able to communicate easier, promote the program, and get fans involve truly help influence athletes to want to play their sport at your university. In this fascinating article, it explains the story of how one recruit found twitter beneficial in making his decision for college football.
ENHANCING PEOPLE”S KNOWLEDGE OF SPORTS: People are so busy doing many different things everyday that not being able to watch a game is no problem anymore. With the access to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites every big play, and a few plays in between, are mentioned or shown through video. It has changed the way people know sports due to the instant access instead of waiting to watch highlights on TV later or on the internet. Also, going back to what I mentioned above, changes in rules, games, player trades , etc. are easier to find out. If a recruit signs with a team, within seconds fans of that sports team can know through social media.
Overall, it has changed people’s views of sports both for the good and for the bad, changed the way the particular sport is played, and helped fans be more involved by enhancing their knowledge of what is going on currently and faster. As social media becomes more influential in humans everyday lives, I believe it will continue to have different affects on the sports world.
JUSTIN MCAFEE 
I agree that social media does have a HUGE affects on sports. People don’t even need to watch the game…they can just look at their phones and get updates. During the last Super Bowl a week ago, I wasn’t able to watch it because I don’t have cable at my apartment on campus. Thanks to Twitter, I got updates on my newsfeed and felt like I knew exactly what was going on during the game. Thank God for social media and smart phones. Great article too, by the way!
This is a great article about how Social Media is impacting the world of Sports. You talked about how Social networks can hurt a athletes reputation, but I think it would be awesome to show how it has worked to make some players more personable or friendly. Maybe link in a player’s social network so that I can easily see the real world example. I really liked how you looked at the side of the athlete, the spectator, and those with sporting knowledgeable. Great well rounded article about Sports and Social Media Interactions.
Your ideas on sports and social media are good, but i think you could have expanded a little more on each section. I also feel you could have provided some evidence to some of the statements you made. Im not bashing what you said just want to help critique you in making it more appealing. I also dont totally agree with social media benefiting athletes. I think social media does more harm then it does good for there reputation. For example the whole Richard Sherman incident during the NFC championship. In less then an hr after his interview with Erin Andrews Richard Sherman became ridiculed with terrible comments bashing him for what he said. However, bad publicity is still publicity, but i think athletes look to be role models in the community and not after all the terrible attention they get now that fans have acess to social media. Other than that i did enjoy your views on social media in the realm of sports.
There are a lot of interesting points here, but overall this was a tough article for me to read because I don’t completely agree with all of your arguments. I agree that social media has greatly influenced how fans access sports information, but I’m not sure that social media has as big of an impact on athletes as most people think. Before social media, certain rumors about athletes still spread quite quickly via news reports, interviews and more. Social media simply provides a different medium for people to access these rumors. In this way I also disagree that social media is impacting how athletes play on the field. With that said I do agree that social media is improving overall sports knowledge amongst fans because new information is always readily available for them.