Thursday, March 19, 2015

Two Apps, Two Screens, Two Somethings

Ah the joys of social media and separating one's personal life from professional.  More than a few will say it can't be done, but I'll recommend at least making a physical separation on those social accounts you can.

Facebook's native environment is bad for this -- and I can't tell you how many times something for the institution came out on my personal by accident.

By the grace of God, I'm not in the shape of these two folks.  Twitter tends to be where this happens most, and you can do what I do (and many other pros): use two apps.  I know folks who go so far as to separate those two apps onto different screens on their mobile devices -- a work screen and a personal screen.

The Washington Post famously told the world about one of their social media team's feeling about the upcoming March Madness.  More directly in the sports world, one of UTEP's SIDs mistakenly gave his opinion about a player intended for his personal account.

Thursday, March 05, 2015

If It's Digital, It's Not Anonymous

Here is a truism of online life:

"I love [SERVICE] because I can say what I want."

Guess what?  Fill in that sentence with anything -- and it simply is not true.

SnapChat? Nope, they were caching all along.  Screen names? Ask GeauxJudge about that.  Text messages?  Check in with B. Petrino.

Today, the latest epic security fail:  the conviction of a Michigan State student for his bad behavior on the supposedly anonymous YikYak.

Here is the important note from the Lansing State Journal:

He is among at least a dozen college students across the country who since September have been charged with using Yik Yak to post threats, according to news reports.

I do enjoy these I told you so moments -- digital assets are easily copied and extremely transportable.

Wednesday, March 04, 2015

Send This Link to Every Student-Athlete You Know Now

"This is not Twitter’s fault or the Internet. That’s like blaming Ford for someone being run over. This is people."

Truth spoke by enraged father Curt Schilling in USA TODAY talking about his online revenge campaign against the unwarranted assault on his daughter's commitment to play softball for an East Coast private college.

If you want to see the unexpurgated worse Tweets, of course, Deadspin has them all.

So far, cost the jobs of a part-time Yankees ticket taker and a part-time sports talk host who was a community college student suspended from school.

But the mind-blowing part of this isn't that guys say cruel, misogynistic, heinous things about famous (or in this case, the children of the famous) women.

No, it's that at least a couple of the haters are strongly rumored to be future fellow student-athletes at the college where Schilling's daughter was about to attend.

Let that sink in.

As the former BoSox pitcher himself said:

“It’s idiotic on their part. I know how hard they had to work to get there. They’re going to use 140 characters and let it cost a $140,000 scholarship.”

What was a minor Twitter-Meme among athletic departments late last year, just became real life.

Go.  Go now.  Grab your athletic directors, your coaches, your student-athlete support staffs.

Put this story in their face and dare them to think it couldn't happen here.

Because it can.

To my fellow blogger and father of a high school senior at 38 Pitches, kudos.  Take a moment to read Schilling's dad-rant.  It is angry.  It is in the face of anyone who doubts his point of view.  And on
many, many points -- especially how this kind of digital wilding can lead to teenagers doing physical harm to themselves -- he is spot on.