Twitter - Giving fans everywhere yet another way to obsess about high school kids.

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MNVCGUY

MNVCGUY

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Pretty sure I will get blasted for this but here goes. I know people get excited about recruiting but with twitter it is getting ridiculous. We have grown men and women reading the twitter accounts of 18 year old kids looking for info on what they plan to do next year. I know this topic has been brought up by others in regards to facebook but it seems like with Twitter things have gone to an even sicker level of obsession.

A kid that claims to be 100% for Minnesota today could change his mind and go a totally different direction on signing day. Some of the reposts of twitter messages I have seen on this board are almost impossible to figure out and could mean a million different things.

I'm all for following recruiting and tracking things on sites like Rivals and what not. But some of the amateur sleuthing that goes on from fans goes a little over the top for my taste.

I know a lot of you might disagree and in the end people are free to do whatever they want but does anyone else find this obsessing over a kids facebook and twitter posts just a little on the creepy side?
 

MNVCGUY said:
Pretty sure I will get blasted for this but here goes. I know people get excited about recruiting but with twitter it is getting ridiculous. We have grown men and women reading the twitter accounts of 18 year old kids looking for info on what they plan to do next year. I know this topic has been brought up by others in regards to facebook but it seems like with Twitter things have gone to an even sicker level of obsession.

A kid that claims to be 100% for Minnesota today could change his mind and go a totally different direction on signing day. Some of the reposts of twitter messages I have seen on this board are almost impossible to figure out and could mean a million different things.

I'm all for following recruiting and tracking things on sites like Rivals and what not. But some of the amateur sleuthing that goes on from fans goes a little over the top for my taste.

I know a lot of you might disagree and in the end people are free to do whatever they want but does anyone else find this obsessing over a kids facebook and twitter posts just a little on the creepy side?
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In a way, yes. I would hate to have the people here reading what I say on Facebook. Would just be weird. But since a lot of the "information" the guys on these recruiting sites gets seems to be from Twitter, it's a lot easier for a fan to just follow the player and interpret the tweets their own way. Like the time the recruit was talking about a video game and one of guys at a recruiting site thought he was committing to a school.
 

I know what you are saying and agree to a point. I don't have a Twitter account, will never have a Twitter account, and don't feel the need to share my every thought with the masses. I don't spend time combing Twitter feeds, but many do.

That being said, I read all of the threads on here where that info is posted, so I can't really judge anyone.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Pretty sure I will get blasted for this but here goes. I know people get excited about recruiting but with twitter it is getting ridiculous. We have grown men and women reading the twitter accounts of 18 year old kids looking for info on what they plan to do next year. I know this topic has been brought up by others in regards to facebook but it seems like with Twitter things have gone to an even sicker level of obsession.

A kid that claims to be 100% for Minnesota today could change his mind and go a totally different direction on signing day. Some of the reposts of twitter messages I have seen on this board are almost impossible to figure out and could mean a million different things.

I'm all for following recruiting and tracking things on sites like Rivals and what not. But some of the amateur sleuthing that goes on from fans goes a little over the top for my taste.

I know a lot of you might disagree and in the end people are free to do whatever they want but does anyone else find this obsessing over a kids facebook and twitter posts just a little on the creepy side?
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I totally agree. It is a creepy. But, I think ESPN has helped drive twitter with following every little thing a athlete tweets about. That can be said for all journalists for that matter...Twitter takes it to an all new level.
 

Personally, I don't "follow" any recruits, but i will check their tweets every once in awhile and use ctl+f to see if they have anything about minnesota or mn. I couldn't care less about how much they love their gf or hate art class, etc... I am surprised more of them dont mark their tweets private.
 


It's not even remotely "creepy". It is public information available to anyone on Earth with a computer and the knowledge of where to look. If it is "creepy", then visiting this website, going to ESPN.com, or researching a term paper are all equally "creepy".
 

dpodoll68 said:
It's not even remotely "creepy". It is public information available to anyone on Earth with a computer and the knowledge of where to look. If it is "creepy", then visiting this website, going to ESPN.com, or researching a term paper are all equally "creepy".
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I would say it's more equatable to reading a blog someone posts about their life.
 

I think Twitter will further change college recruiting and not for the better. What better way for a recruit to raise his profile than by tweeting about his recruitment? If he's got tOSU, Nebraska, and Texas in contention for his commitment can you imagine how many followers the recruit could get? We could (maybe already do) have high school kids with 50,000 or more people following them on Twitter. The only way the party stops is for them to commit to a school, and then fans of other schools will unfollow him. This will just further encourage kids to wait until signing day to make a decision while their heads get even bigger from all the attention they've received. In most cases they will be bigger stars during their recruitment than they will be during their first couple years on campus (redshirt and a year as a backup at a power school).
 

EG#9 said:
I think Twitter will further change college recruiting and not for the better. What better way for a recruit to raise his profile than by tweeting about his recruitment? If he's got tOSU, Nebraska, and Texas in contention for his commitment can you imagine how many followers the recruit could get? We could (maybe already do) have high school kids with 50,000 or more people following them on Twitter. The only way the party stops is for them to commit to a school, and then fans of other schools will unfollow him. This will just further encourage kids to wait until signing day to make a decision while their heads get even bigger from all the attention they've received. In most cases they will be bigger stars during their recruitment than they will be during their first couple years on campus (redshirt and a year as a backup at a power school).
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I'm guessing just playing HS football in TX could get a player 50,000 followers, easy.
 



I dunno, I love it when people think a kid commits based on which team he decides to play with on his Xbox that afternoon. However, I don't follow any high school kids, as I have a severe affliction to reading material with incorrect your/you're and two/to/too.
 

I think I am like most on this board that when I post a tweet of a recruit it is a re-tweet from one of the guys at GI, M.Fuller, or Doogie. I don't follow any of the kids. I follow the media people.
 

NateDawgUM said:
I dunno, I love it when people think a kid commits based on which team he decides to play with on his Xbox that afternoon. However, I don't follow any high school kids, as I have a severe affliction to reading material with incorrect your/you're and two/to/too.
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This from the guy who starts out his post with "I dunno."
 

dpodoll68 said:
It's not even remotely "creepy". It is public information available to anyone on Earth with a computer and the knowledge of where to look. If it is "creepy", then visiting this website, going to ESPN.com, or researching a term paper are all equally "creepy".
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Usually I agree with most of the things you say on this board but on this one we are on opposite sides of the fence. I see a difference between going on to a sports website or team message board versus following the daily ramblings of a high school kid or multiple high school kids on the chance that they will say something about your favorite school and whether or not they plan to play there the following fall.

You are right that the info is public and in reality this is more of a societal issue then one specific to this board. I am 35 years old and I feel like an old fudy-duddy when I sit here thinking that maybe people don't need to know every single thought that goes through everyone elses head on a daily basis. I have a facebook account but I am not one of those that updates my status multiple times a day or spends time pouring over what all my "friends" are doing with their day. But that is just my personal preference I know a lot of people love that minute to minute way of life where they are constantly in the know about what is going on. Who knows, I am probably in the dying minority of people that still like a little bit of privacy in their personal life.
 



What's creepy about it? Once you accept that it is OK to follow recruiting at all, I don't see how it can be creepy to pay attention to a recruit's tweets. It's not spying, it is simply information that someone has chosen to share with the world. Why does the communication technology determine whether somethign is creepy? Rivals is not creepy, but Twitter is?
 


RodentRampage said:
What's creepy about it? Once you accept that it is OK to follow recruiting at all, I don't see how it can be creepy to pay attention to a recruit's tweets. It's not spying, it is simply information that someone has chosen to share with the world. Why does the communication technology determine whether somethign is creepy? Rivals is not creepy, but Twitter is?
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I view Rivals and Twitter as very different things. Rivals is a site where you go for recruiting info that is posted by paid "reporters" whose job it is to go out and get info on recruits for the website and the people that subscribe to it or view it. I see that as very different then you or me sitting at our computer following the ramblings of some high school kid discussing what party they or going to or if they had a good BM that morning in the hope that they might say something about where they are going to college.

Both places have public info but Rivals is specifically targeted at recruiting whereas Twitter doesn't really have a focus and is just another way for people to communicate, supposedly with the people that have an interest in their daily life.

But hey it is a free country and the info is out there for anyone that wants it so just because I think it crosses a line doesn't mean it is in any way wrong for other people.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I think I am like most on this board that when I post a tweet of a recruit it is a re-tweet from one of the guys at GI, M.Fuller, or Doogie. I don't follow any of the kids. I follow the media people.
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Exactly. When I've posted something, it was a retweet from the GI or Scout guy.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I view Rivals and Twitter as very different things. Rivals is a site where you go for recruiting info that is posted by paid "reporters" whose job it is to go out and get info on recruits for the website and the people that subscribe to it or view it. I see that as very different then you or me sitting at our computer following the ramblings of some high school kid discussing what party they or going to or if they had a good BM that morning in the hope that they might say something about where they are going to college.
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Then it MUST be creepy when the reporters follow these recruits, right?
 

RodentRampage said:
Then it MUST be creepy when the reporters follow these recruits, right?
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Actually it is to a certain degree. But with the way things are they don't really have a choice in the matter. We have become such an instant society that you have to run with any bit of news the second you get it as opposed to the old way where you would verify info before bringing it to the public.

It would be interesting to get the take of members of the media on this new era of journalism. I would bet a lot of them are not big fans of it because it requires them to constantly toss new info out there as opposed to developing the story and going with something that has been well put together.
 

Creepy is using your facebook or Twitter account to "friend" potential recruits from other schools and try and talk them out of committing to a rival by badmouthing the school or the program.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Creepy is using your facebook or Twitter account to "friend" potential recruits from other schools and try and talk them out of committing to a rival by badmouthing the school or the program.
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Can't argue with you there. My whole point with this was really to see what other people thought. To me it has all gone a bit overboard but at this point there is no turning back and it is only going to get worse. Today it is Twitter, who knows what will come next.
 

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