The Baseball Observer Nov-Dec 2015 vol 5 | Page 40

In March of this year, a junior first baseman at Bloomsburg University was kicked off the team after he posted a vulgar tweet toward Little League baseball star Mo’ne Davis. His dream ended in less than 14o characters.

Another example of social media impacting an athlete’s recruitment involved Yuri Wright, one of the nations top cornerback prospects in 2012. He was expelled from Don Bosco Prep School in New Jersey after posting sexually graphic tweets. It was reported that The University of Michigan withdrew his scholarship offer because of the incident.

College coaches are watching for bad social media behavior. Like it or not, social media is now beoming part of most coaches checklist for recruits.

THE WORLD IS WATCHING

As of January 2015, worldwide there were over 3 billion (yes billion) active internet users of which over 2 billion have active social media accounts. (http://wearesocial.net/). North America leads the world with 88% of the population using the internet. So that’s a lot of eyes out there looking. You might not think many people are seeing your posts and pic’s - but they are.

DON'T BE FOOLED - NOTHING ON THE INTERNET IS PRIVATE

You aren't just posting to a friend or your inner circle. The simple fact is once something is posted it will probably be there for a very long time for everyone to see. Who knows who will accidentally stumble upon or intentionally find your post in the future. Or it could be as simple as you remove a comment or image but someone "screen shot" it

before you removed it

and they re-post it.

Once you post some-

thing even for a short

time anything can

happen.

Hacking can be another

problem. The New York

Post on March 1st 2015

reported that 160,000

Facebook accounts are

being hacked on a daily

basis. Facebook isn't

the only social media

sevice being hacked. a

post it?

The Baseball Observer - Nov/ Dec 2015

Danger - Social Media

Stone Cold Facts

Baseball Observer Staff

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