Social Media Shutdown

[Yankee_Jack]

Swansea City take stand against online abuse | Swansea

Swansea City has chosen to take a club-wide stance in the battle against abuse and discrimination of all forms on social media.

www.swanseacity.com

Club have decided to unilaterally boycott posting on social media for a period of 7 days.

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I support this. I have never understood the value proposition of social media sites. In general, they consider people (users) as mere inventory that are recycled and "sold" to advertisers that are the social media company's true customers. There are exceptions, of course, this site being one, but in general these exceptions are sites without a commercial revenue objective and offer a channel of true social engagement for a specific opted-in community

There is a tremendous squandering of time and value by users on social media. For example, on Facebook, using conservative numbers for hourly labor rate (minimum income), hours consumed per day, days utilized per year, number of total end users etc, the annual global opportunity cost is US$1.5 trillion - yes trillion - it adds up pretty quickly. To put this in perspective, as a crude lower estimate, this is the global GDP of the base of the pyramid - those making less than US$10 per day living on economic frontiers. All to be cannon fodder for a barrage of advertisement, mis-information, dis-information, insult, and bigotry in various forms.

I shutdown and deleted my Facebook account in October of last year ... and haven't missed it one iota.

 

[The Blobster]

I don't do any social media ( Facebook, twitter , etc ) ,
I contribute to scfc forums and have a Gmail account but thats it.
I use utube for music and sport coverage but otherwise I stay off line and happy !
I whole heartedly condemn anyone using these platforms or using any means to racially abuse a fellow human being . Race , colour or creed should make no difference , accept people as individuals , you don't have to like them but we are all different, its what makes our interaction with others different and invigorating.
I support the clubs action , indeed they should make it permanent until Facebook etc. act and ban these disgusting users , they should also Pass on the users details to the authorities so the police can prosecute these individuals.
They are all faceless keyboard warriors who would no doubt shy away from a face to face confrontation.

 

[ivoralljack]

Can't abide FB and the like in any way, shape or form. People can hack your account with impunity, as happened to me with FB, and, when I reported it, they didn't give a flying fuck. Social media, imo, is far too often, for keyboard warriors and frequented by many of decidedly lower intelligence. No wish to associate with them at all and, if this sounds arrogant or pompous, so be it. I try and live my life by my own standards....... for better or for worse.

 

[Behindthegoal]

If you have a social media account to receive plaudits from your adoring fans you have sent an invitation to receive criticism as well. Live with it or close the account.
I do not know what the racial abuse was, but I do know that if I call someone an arrogant bastard it is because he is arrogant, not illegitimate.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

I have been tracking social media metrics of clubs in the UK and Spain since the middle of last year on a daily basis.

This is the Swans' FB likes and followers from July 2020 to Feb 2021.

• A Like is a person who has chosen to attach their name to your Page as a fan.
• A follower is a person who has chosen to receive the updates that you post in their news feed (subject to the Facebook algorithm of course).

Note, followers have remained pretty constant; likes have steadily left. There are 1.3 million liking and following.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

This is the same chart for Brentford. There are 178K followers and likers for this club.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Here's Norwich. There 868K likers and followers for this club.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

The Swans' social media audience is around 8x greater than Brentford's ... we've recently been in the Premier League. However, whereas people have been disliking the Swans, they've been jumping on board then sticking with Brentford. Norwich have stayed constant then once they started to lead the league the size of their audience is shooting up.

Our social media audience stats reflect the quality of the Club's on field performance - trending dire to dismal.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Now Tottenham are about to, or have joined us, Rangers and Brum in temporarily disengaging from social media.

@Behindthegoal makes a point above that I agree with for the most part ... if you step into the public square, then do so with broad shoulders and be ready to accept and take the good, the bad, and the ugly. Is what gets written and posted on social media any worse that what gets yelled at players from the stands during a match? I have been at games where the torrent of abuse coming out of some people has made me cringe.

That said, what standards should we impose on society and people in the public square. Physically speaking, in the physical public square, such abuse would/could at the very least fall foul of breach of peace and other such laws. On social media, if the "public square" is the club's own page on facebook or twitter etc, then the club should police that real estate itself and set up rules that require postings to be vetted before being allowed into a stream or just patrol the stream, delete postings that fail to meet the club's values/standards and block the offending user. If the social media, site is not within club control ... then complain to authorities but otherwise suck it up. Make a note of who the party is and block them.

If you have ownership of a social media presence then, for a club, it has the responsibility to monitor, police, and revoke participation on the social media page/stream, just as it would abhorrent behaviour in the stands.