Social media vs young athlete's confidence?

Today, young athletes do not know how to deal with adversity & struggles,  most prefer to quit.

By Zuriel Z Lozano

There is no secret that social media is currently controlling the mind & attention of millions of people to include young athletes. From video games producers, celebrities, movie stars, and athletes superstars all of them have millions of followers and are able to influence millions of their followers easily. 

Sadly, social media is becoming the kids best friend, parents, advisor, teachers, mentors, Pastor & COACH. This means that the kid’s self-steem is built around what they see & learn from social media.  Most people in social media will spend time COMPARING themselves with others and always looking for this “instant” gratification such as “LIKES”.

Social media has HARD-WIRED the mind of many young athletes, for example:

” “Comparison is a thief of joy,”.”Theodore Roosevelt.

COMPARISONS

The idea that you can do the same as a certain star or person with large following base, is one the most common issues among youth athletes. They work hard to be like a certain person but that is NOT who they are. When they cannot reach or be like “them” in social media, it may cause depression and a long list of mental issues & self-steem problems.

ADDICTION

Watch people or teenagers who CANNOT stay away from their electronic devices. If an adult threatens a teenager to take away their cell phone, these teens will have a “near death experience”.   Some simply CANNOT stay away from looking at their cells for more than 20 min. If they post anything on their social media platforms they are in constant search for more LIKES = APPROVAL. 

They just simply cannot stay away from social media, the same way an alcoholic or drug addict would…If you still do not believe it, then ask a teenager or young adult not to look at their cells for at least 3 days….

DEEP RELATIONSHIPS

Many young athletes are not able to form real or meaningful relationships with others.  For example, they are not able to carry deep conversations, make eye contact & express themselves at a deeper level. They do not know how to deal with rejections or deal with stress.

Instead they are more comfortable TEXTING and clicking “LIKES” or posting things on their social media to show to the world that “they are great”.  However, no real connection exists.

SOCIAL MEDIA “ME” and the REAL “ME”

Today anything & everything is posted on social media for ATTENTION, even lies…  The millions of posts on social media mostly are people making themselves look GREAT but in reality many are DEPRESSED or in search of something to fill in their deep emptiness.  In reality, these are individuals who are simply lost in their own small messy world and live fake lives.

INSTANT-GRATIFICATION DRUG

Getting LIKES or getting COMMENTS makes some of these young athletes feel great. They POST something and some are literally just watching & refreshing their pages to see those LIKES grow. This INSTANT satisfaction is like a drug where you want more & more. But it creates an illusion that you can get ANYTHING in life & anything you want RIGHT NOW.

This INSTA satisfaction approach have created athletes who will give up easy, who are expecting things to come easy. They will not have the patience to finish anything that requires work.

In conclusion, unless social media disappears from the face of the earth then the new generation will become more mentally WEAK than ever. Plus, you will see millions who are NEVER satisfied nor willing to work hard for anything.  However, social media will continue to grow and seems is not going anywhere any time soon.