Twitter Landscape: The Trolls

The way the social media landscape goes about its business is entertaining to say the least. Every day, probably every hour, there is something new for Twitter to sound off about. The sports media is by far one of the funniest groups of people on the Internet. One of the more recent sports media people who used his platform and blue checkmark to call out an athlete was CBSSports.com sports writer Dennis Dodd. After Wisconsin’s Elite Eight win over Arizona, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was on the floor celebrating with the Badgers when Dodd tried to get an interview with the MVP who “ignored” the reporter and said, “I’m not doing interviews”.

Dodd then went on a Twitter rant, which are the best rants, and he was visibly upset, I didn’t actually see him but I could see it in his tweets, and during that rant he was saying how the media had to stand behind the three point line while the Badger players cut down the nets. Meanwhile, Rodgers was inside the three-point line, probably inside the paint, while the celebration happened. Dodd made it seem like Rodgers was cutting down the net. He went on to complain that Rodgers didn’t have credentials to be there and it was “unfair” that the NFL MVP was closer to the action than he was. OF COURSE HE WAS. IT’S AARON FREAKIN’ RODGERS DUDE. Do you have a Super Bowl MVP? I didn't think so. (you can see the rant here, here, here, here, and here,) 

There are two types of people on Twitter, people who care and people who don’t. Dennis Dodd is one of those who care. Then you have someone like Bomani Jones (definitely give him a follow @bomani_jones) who doesn’t care. The people who care are also called “trolls”; those are the people who like to argue with people for the sole purpose of starting an argument. If you’re a TV personality, athlete, actor/actress, musician, or anyone who has celebrity status you’re going to have to deal with those trolls, that’s just part of it. You can ignore it completely, respond to it and stoop to their level by saying something that can get you in trouble, or, have fun with it. Bomani Jones is someone that has fun with it, and it’s very entertaining.

I’m on Twitter, probably too much, but that’s not the point. I love Twitter because it gives me a platform to essentially say anything I want and say what’s on my mind. I like to say some bold things and people will respond accordingly with their opinion. Here’s the key, none of our opinions matter. They have no bearing on the grand scheme of things. Do you think that LeBron cares when someone Tweets at him, “Damn LeBron, why the hell did you shoot that?? You suck, leave Cleveland”. Answer, no. He doesn’t even see that tweet from some 45-year old guy who has 25 followers and follows 500 people from his parent’s basement.

Then are the stories like the one Curt Schilling was involved in. You can read the full story here, but in short, Schilling’s daughter got accepted to college where she will play softball. He tweeted out a congratulatory tweet to her then things went downhill fast, real fast. I won’t get into the whole thing on here but you can read it for yourself. I must warn you though; most of the tweets are extremely offensive.

In closing, to the Twitter trolls who wake up every day hoping to see something that will spark an argument, troll on. In a weird way you make the Twitter world amusing until you start going at someone for the sake of getting retweets, favorites, or to getting your mentions up. Don’t do that. Have some sort of decency.

Tweet on!

Follow me on Twitter: @Stephen_Springs