Freedom of Speech and the Social Media Scrub
When working with a team, I get the roster beforehand and look up social media profiles. Inevitably, I find racial slurs, sexist remarks, hate speech, and incriminating photos. I take screenshots of these comments and grab the images to show them to the athletes in the privacy of our upcoming meeting.
However, there was one student that stood out and would soon find it difficult to find a school after they graduate. Their social media looked great for the past few years. But I dig deeper, like the companies that research their prospects.
This particular individual has some posts from 5 years ago that I will not be sharing here. Believe me when I say it would anger you, no matter who you are. When I brought it up to the athlete, they protested.
"But I was young, so who cares? I didn't know what I was saying."
"That is true," I said. "But when you post something online, whether it was yesterday or 10 years ago, it will be attributed to who you are now. It is just the way it is."
Freedom of speech is not freedom of consequences. What is said online is searchable and incriminating. As a hiring manager, I get my hands on a resume, and the first thing I do is look up their social media profiles. Google, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook help me decide if a candidate would fit the organization's culture. College coaches do the same thing with prospective athletes, except they hire agencies to do their searching with tools much greater than what I have at my disposal.
There are always one or two athletes who object, citing freedom of speech and privacy. They are 100% right--they are allowed to do and post whatever they want. I let them know I am not here to judge their actions and remind them I was once in high school and made many mistakes. Colleges do this all the time before they offer to pay for a prospect's education, and accounts set on "private" are not as private as student-athletes would like to believe.
Also, since it is a closed session and not open to the public, student-athletes can learn a valuable lesson among teammates and not subject to the court of public opinion.
Coach, remember when we could make mistakes as children and not have those ignorant moments recorded for all time? Yeah, those days are gone.
The difference between our time as kids and today is there are no photos to show what we did and no statements online to show our ignorant thoughts toward other people.
I recommend doing this for your teams, followed by a social media scrub. If we don't offer insight into future consequences of past decisions, we have missed an opportunity to help our student-athletes long after turning in their jersey. This type of conversation should be delivered by a coach who has earned the student-athlete's trust. They must believe that the coach is coming from a place of helpfulness, not of condemnation.
It is not easy to be a child these days, with every moment being recorded and archived. Mistakes can follow them for life and limit their future opportunities. Let's help them see the ridiculousness of social media and teach them to add positivity to the world.
