Social Media's Negative Effects On Student Athletes

Social media is detrimental to athlete’s lives outside of the court or field; by using social media, college recruiters can weed out who belongs at their school and who does not. A student at a seminar for her dream college tweeted a rude comment about her peers around; college recruiters saw that post and immediately revoked her acceptance. Many student-athletes at the high school age post whatever comes to mind without understanding the ramifications of one negative post; especially if one is planning on going to college. Social media impacts the lives of student-athletes in some of the most negative ways, by reducing the usage of social media, student-athletes goals and aspirations can be saved from being sucked into Pandora’s Box of social media. Many college recruiters look at a prospective student-athletes social media profile without telling the prospect and sometimes social media can be the tip of the iceberg about accepting the student. A student-athlete
Arguments are made by many that recruiters looking at a prospective student-athlete violates privacy rights of the student’s. Looking at a student-athlete's online profile does not violate the 1st amendment if the student has ‘friended’ a college recruiter, if their profile is not private or if the post goes against the college’s code of conduct. Recruiters don’t always look at a social media profile, recruiters mainly look for clarification purposes in a student’s application or if an anonymous tip was put in. These profiles weren’t meant to be seen by college recruiters because it is personal parts of lives that only some people are let into. If a profile isn’t set on ‘private’ then the profile is available to anyone who wants to see it. If someone allows anyone to see the daily life of oneself then college recruits should be able to do the same if need