Social Media: A Women's World?
- genderandsport8
- Nov 16, 2018
- 4 min read
We currently live in a technology-based world. As a result, social media is constantly expanding. It has become quite common for people to spend several hours on their phones or computers scrolling through social media; whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or another social media platform. In 2008, Twitter had over 23 million users, and Facebook had over 250 million.
Over 60% of fans are now going online to get their sports updates. These numbers have increased in 2018 to 336 million Twitter users and 2.27 billion active Facebook users. These stats are only increasing, providing opportunities for sport teams and athletes to market and promote their events. On top of this, research has shown that women are the ones who are more likely to be adopting and using social media. Social media provides endless opportunities for interaction. So, how does this affect sport? Can it be seen as a positive, negative, or an equalizer?
On the positive side, social media is available to anyone. No one needs to pay to gain access. It is a free platform where fans are able to get immediate news and updates, and can interact with their favourite teams and players. It may give the fans a greater sense of connection with their favourite players. Many athletes have Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter accounts where fans are able to keep up with the athletes' daily lives.
Some women see this increase in social media as a positive and are now running male sports team accounts. This allows them to fight comments that have been made about women not being knowledgeable about sports. It also gives the opportunity for women to be protected from harassment, since the sexist assumption would be that males are running these accounts. This season, 44% of NFL social accounts were actually run by women. In addition, 4 out of 5 big Boston teams are also run by women. This is a huge opportunity and a way in which women are finally being included in the world of sports that was previously known as a man’s world.
Although there are positives, there are still negatives to social media. Since women are more active on social media, people believe that social media has a greater advantage for female athletes. It gives the athletes the ability to talk directly to their fans and send out the message they would like. However, this is not always the case. There is still the potential for misuse and exploitation. Women's leagues such as the WNBA have encouraged athletes to use their social media during games to give their fans immediate, personal updates. This becomes an issue for several reasons, the first one being a male athlete would never have this expectation. This reinforces the idea that women's sports aren’t as competitive or as serious as men's.
With social media comes a lot of negativity and hate. Not only toward the athletes, but also toward female reporters. There have been many instances where female sport reporters have been called out for being boring, or in many cases much worse. Specifically, in the PSA “More than Mean”, female reporters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro sat down with men who read real world comments that were posted about them online. These comments included “You need to be hit in the head with a hockey puck and killed”, “I hope your boyfriend beats you” and others, some of which were even worse. People are able to hide behind a screen and say whatever they want, and this is definitely not always a positive.
Looking back at the previous statement about women receiving more opportunity through social media, the question becomes: is this only because no one knows who holds the social media role? Many people assume the social media role is male because of their knowledge. Although it was a positive to protect the woman from harassment, this shouldn’t be the case. Women should be able to express their knowledge and love for sports without being questioned. This is why in other situations where women are visually seen, such as female sport reporters, they are still receiving mass amounts of hate, lack of respect, and a lack of opportunity.
Another negative is that social media has gotten some athletes into serious trouble, potentially affecting their careers. This can be through pictures athletes may post of underage drinking and of comments that could potentially be racist, homophobic, etc. Therefore, there are many areas for potential dangers of using social media to display athlete’s day-to-day lives.
Overall, social media is an equalizer. It comes with a wide range of positives and negatives. It has opened up a world of opportunity for women to be included in the sports community and to be able to share their knowledge without the hate surrounding it. However, there is still room for improvement. Women shouldn’t have to hide behind a screen to participate in the sports industry. The endless hate and negativity on social media needs to be stopped and it is time to think of ways that social media can create real social change. This can start with portraying females in a realistic way, respecting women's sports, and giving equal opportunity.
Roles:
Lead Contributor: Amanda Scarafile
Artistic Director: Kendra Voogt
Editor: Alexandra Klingmann
Website Manager: Marissa Pomponio
References
Antoniacci, M. (2016, April 28). Social media and sports: A powerful depiction of how women are harassed in a man's world. Retrieved November 13, 2018, from Inc. website: https://www.inc.com/mandy-antoniacci/social-media-and-sports-a-powerful-depiction-of-how-women-are-harassed-in-a-man-.html
Creedon, P. (2014). Women, social media, and sport: Global digital communication weaves a web. Television & New Media, 15(8), 711-716. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476414530476
de la Cretaz, B. (2018, September 19). The person running your favorite football team's twitter is probably a woman [Blog post]. Retrieved from The Verge website: https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/19/17852628/sports-social-media-women-twitter-nfl-nba-mlb
Number of monthly active facebook users world wide as of 3rd quarter 2018 (in millions). (n.d.). Retrieved November 16, 2018, from Statista website: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
Number of monthly active twitter users worldwide from first quarter 2010 to third quarter 2018 (in millions). (2018). Retrieved November 16, 2018, from Statista website: https://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/
Tucker Center. (2009, September 21). Social media: What it is and why it matters to women's sports [Blog post]. Retrieved from Tucker Center website: https://tuckercenter.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/social-media-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters-to-women%E2%80%99s-sports/
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