Can't We All Just Get Along?

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

I’m not really sure what the original purpose of social networking was. Was it to make kissing girls easier? Or maybe it was to sell advertising space? Hell, maybe it was all just to distract us for a few minutes at work so we would ignore the fact that we are slowly dying. All I know is that it probably wasn’t created so you could be a jerk. (Well, according toThe Social Network, wasn’t that why Facebook was created?)

Today, Angels catcher Bobby Wilson (formerly @BW46) retired from Twitter. I didn’t even know he was on there, but after being constantly nagged for his poor offensive performance, he shut it down. Wilson said:

“I’m done with twitter. Try to be a fan friendly and all I get is criticism. I wasn’t blessed with 5 tools. I worked hard to get here”

Despite being one of the 700 best baseball players on the planet, Wilson still has to apologize for his performance. Wilson was drafted in the 48th round and still managed to reach the Major Leagues. Hell, the guy has sustained two concussions and is still showing up to work everyday. He’s like Barry Zuckerkorn, he’s not your first choice, but he’s still very good.

I’m not trying to say that fans can’t criticize players or their performance because, just as a film buff can critique an actor, baseball fans have every right to criticize a player’s performance. But why people have the need to deal directly with the player by sending a “@BW46 you suck!”, I’ll never know. Not just because Bobby Wilson is in the top 1% of baseball players in the world and not just because he’s still 1,000 times a better player than you, Mr. Random Schmoe, but because professional athletes are still people. With feelings and stuff that they didn’t lose when they hit the weight room.

So next time you’re on Twitter and you want to reply to an athlete, ask yourself: Would I say this thing if I ran into them at a bar or a restaurant or a hotel? Because if you wouldn’t, then just sit back and continue surfing the internet. It’s how a polite society works.

(h/t Getting Blanked)