Social Media For Young Athletes
For young athletes, growing up during the age of social media is seemingly just part of life. It really is hard to believe how rapidly technology has shaped our behavior in such a short period of time. In fact, as someone who grew up in an age *before* social media then watched it grow as I came up through the ranks as a collegiate and pro athlete, I witnessed the way that social media has grown and come to change the behavior of athletes of all levels.
As with any athlete, sometimes it can be difficult to know *how* to go about being your best, achieving your goals, etc., and at the same time trying to block out distractions that may have a negative impact on your goals, your performance, and your life.
Reality check, social media isn’t going anywhere, and I’m certainly not advocating that you simply quit your online presence cold turkey. But let’s be clear, your social media habits can have a real impact on your performance and your life. This cuts both ways, so don’t take this just as a warning, but also an opportunity for you to learn, grow, and improve yourself and your skills.
In this post I’ll dive a bit deeper into the positive and negative ways that social media can impact athletes, and how you can use social media as a tool to further your goals as an athlete.
First, let’s start with negatives. I’m sure without even reading this list you can probably think of some yourself. This list isn’t meant to be exclusive, but here are some of the things that you should watch out for when it comes to your social media usage.
Loss of sleep
If you are a regular follower of the blog or subscribed to the Get Better Everyday newsletter, you’ll know that I put a ton of emphasis on using sleep as a tool to improve your athletic performance and gain a competitive edge. Those that aren’t getting enough sleep can see their performance decrease because of the damage lack of sleep can do to your body. I highly recommend that you check out the blog post on sleep here.
One important anecdote from that post that applies here was a study that followed the social media habits of professional basketball players and found that those athletes that made social media posts more often between the hours of 11 pm and 7 am were likely to perform worse after making those posts than those that made posts earlier in the day or not at all.
In this case, social media itself wasn’t the issue, but I’m sure there have been times many of you have stayed awake at night later than you had planned because you got lost scrolling through your friends posts, watching videos, or making a late night post.
Not only does it keep you up later, but the blue light from the phone and the stimulation to your brain messes up your body's ability to produce important hormones, which then worsens overall sleep quality.
Loss of time/energy/attention
I’m sure many of you have scrolled through videos on your phone for a few minutes only to realize an entire hour has gone by. It’s very easy to get sucked into a rabbit hole of watching video after video of endless queued up content perfectly arranged for your personal taste.
There is a reason companies like Google, Facebook, and the rest got so big! They aren’t showing you your favorite videos out of the goodness of their hearts. Almost all social media platforms have some sort of algorithm that continuously shows you videos and posts it thinks you will like and keep you engaged as long as possible so that they can show you more ads. Remember that next time you’re scrolling through your feed.
Second, many young athletes and students find it hard to concentrate for long periods of time because their brain has become used to watching short clips over and over. Concentration, both in short bursts and over the long haul is critical for any athlete. As attention spans begin to shorten as a result of this trend, being able to focus and concentrate on difficult tasks is even more important now to building and maintaining an edge as an athlete. Hint: A consistent meditation practice will help here!
Comparisons
People tend to only post things that show them in a positive light. If you go by the average person’s social media posts, you’d assume everyone is living a flawless life where they only ace the test, tell funny jokes or make amusing videos, hit a home run or score a touchdown, and travel to exotic and interesting places. If you allow yourself to get sucked into the narrative of comparing yourself and your life to others, then social media is only going to make it worse.
For the most part, the posts you see are only those that the person wants to show you, and leaves out all of the other parts whether they be failures, personal struggles, anxiety, or insecurity. Because of that, you really should stay away from comparing yourself to others based on social media posts.
Do your best to consciously compare yourself to the future, best version of you. That’s how you keep striving to get better and better, and make your prior best days your new baseline!
Selfishness
If you follow any professional athletes on your social media platform of choice, you’ll probably notice that many of them will show off great plays that they made, the workouts that they’re doing, or otherwise promoting themselves or their “brand”. To a certain extent, this is inevitable in the age of social media, and it can help athletes stand out and become more marketable and valuable.
However, real life is not a video game and unless you’re playing golf, tennis, or any other individual sport, the team aspect is an incredibly important part of being an athlete. I dedicate some serious time to this topic in the Fully Equipped Playbook. Regardless of the era that you play in, being a good teammate, on and off the field, never goes out of style.
Bullying and Offensiveness
I saved the worst for last. Bullying unfortunately is not a new problem and something that all young athletes will have to deal with one way or another whether it’s personally or as a witness. Bringing many interactions that used to take place face to face online has made it even easier to bully people through social media.
Wherever bullying takes place, challenge yourself to be part of the solution, not the problem. If you see others engaging in this type of behavior, call them out on it. As a young athlete, you often have more social pull than you might know, and having the courage to speak up on others behavior can carry some heavy weight and help those in need and put a stop to bad behavior.
Likewise, every person who is reading this should take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are engaging in this type of behavior. Not only is it morally wrong, but anything that you post might be used against you later. It can be tempting to post something that might cause a reaction or get tons of likes, but you *really* need to think about the type of stuff that you’re putting out there, even if it is intended to be private like sending a Snap. There have been plenty of stories of old social media posts coming back to haunt athletes and potentially harming their careers.
Once again, you should refrain from this type of behavior because it is morally wrong and you should not tolerate it from yourself or from those around you. Even if there is no ill intent, make it a habit to really think about what you're posting before you hit that send button. If you think it is in any way controversial, don’t post it.
PROS
As you can see, there are a ton of pitfalls when it comes to social media usage for young athletes, but it doesn’t all have to be gloom in doom. In fact, there are many great uses of social media that you can use to actually improve your technique, mindset, and overall skills as an athlete.
Learning
There are so many people out there posting awesome, free content on just about anything you could possibly imagine on places like Youtube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Use this to your advantage!
There truly is infinite knowledge out there to explore, and using social media to learn new drills, techniques, ways of thinking, etc., can be incredibly useful in helping you improve as an athlete and a person. If you do have some down time to use social media, I highly suggest thinking about ways that you can use that time for self improvement.
Motivation
While it can be a negative to compare yourself too closely to others, it certainly doesn’t hurt to use others social media posts as motivation. There are tons of really great athletes, speakers, and every day people who share their stories and insights that can help motivate you to reach your full potential. Once again, if you’re using social media to help advance your goals and give you motivation to improve, then you’re going to have an edge on the competition!
Communication
Of course social media is a great tool to communicate with friends, family, colleges, coaches, and maybe even a few fans. Regardless of your level of skill, there are surely people in your life that want to know about how you did in your game, how the season has been going, are you sticking to your workout routine, etc.. As any athlete knows, you never make it alone, and sharing the milestones, ups and downs, etc., with those that helped you along the way is a great way to make those around you feel like they’re part of your success (which they are!)
Tips
Make sure that you’re paying attention to how much time you spend on social media. It’s ok to take a break from “real life” time to time, but make sure that it’s not interfering with your sleep, school, or athletic schedule. It’s best to block off certain parts of your day where you allow yourself to check in and use the rest of the time to stay focused on your daily goals. Also, do your best to not be on your phone or any device 30-60 minutes before bed. Prioritize feeling good the next day over being entertained the night before!
Seek out knowledge from others in your sport or in life that you find motivational. You can find a lot of great content out there to help you achieve your goals!
Think before you post. If it seems questionable, don’t post it.
Be generous with your shoutouts. Social media is a great way to show some love to people who have helped along the way.
Throughout my career I made a conscious effort to limit social media simply because of negative comments people would make, which would then get in my head and affect my performance and life. Whatever you do, use social media and technology to your benefit, don’t let it use you. Slowly but surely start thinking about new behaviors and habits to create that will enhance your performance on and off the field. I promise, you will be grateful for it!
