http://www.adbmag.com.au SEPTEMBER 2017 | 101It can become a case
of riders chasing likes,
comments and shares
and it can become a
sort of semi-obsession,
which isn’t healthySPECIAL FEATURE I SOCIAL MEDIA
followers actually care?
It’s not all sunshine and roses.
There are many downsides to social
media. “It can be more of a distraction
sometimes,” says Hoges. “I’ve had
riders that have been posting in-
between races. I think you need to
have a good perspective of where it
sits in the big scheme of things and
not let it become too distracting.”
It can be so distracting in fact, that
it hinders the riders’ on-track
performance. “It can become a case of
riders chasing likes, comments and
shares and it can become a sort of
semi-obsession, which isn’t healthy.
There is a fine line between doing too
much and being a good representative
for your sponsors and team.”
While running the KTM Desert
team Grabbo noticed some of his
riders were using their competitors
social media accounts to gauge how
fast they were. This had detrimental
consequences on their performance.
“It’s great to see when different events
are on” Grabbo said. “But the side that
I hated most, and I witnessed quite a
bit as a rider and team manager, was
when guys like Longy [Ivan], would
start reading into and you could see it
bringing him down and actually
effect his riding. I think it’s crazy, but
unjustified and dished out by faceless
people who don’t know a thing about
the person they’re bagging.
This is the problem. The internet
has given people way too much
power. As they say, the pen is
mightier than the sword, and that is
so relevant in social media.
For professional athletes, it’s even
worse. Because social media is part of
their jobs, athletes experience even
more pressure to get the next post up.
And because they have so many
followers, naturally there is going to
be more negative feedback.
“The likes of Chad Reed and Ricky
Carmichael have over half a million
followers on their Instagram alone,”
says Hoges. “But what a lot of people
don’t realise is that, on any particular
day, someone like Chad will get
thousands of positive comments, but
they’ll also get hundreds of negative.
“For the average punter, if we get
one negative comment about
something, it can definitely rattle
you. So for someone like Chad, you’d
need to have a pretty thick skin.”
Indeed, Reed has seen the negative
side of social media and recently said
in an interview that he was taking an
indefinite break from Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram. “I have a lot ofeveryone thinks differently and some
people let it affect them too much.
“With a race like Finke, there’s so
much crazy talk about who’s doing
what speed. It isn’t great for racers to
read that. But on the other end of the
scale, you’ve got Toby [Price], who
uses it to his advantage. The more I’d
see people build him up, the faster
he’d go. There’s not a lot of negative
stuff coming his way and all the
positive stuff did help him.
“Back in the day it was just mags
that had a voice, but this day and age,
someone can say what speed there
bike is doing or show some footage
and it gets in some riders heads, when
really they don’t need to look at it”.SLEAZE
The cyber world can also get you in a
bit of hot water. Just ask Husky rider
Martin Davalos. The AMA SX/MX
rider from Ecuador landed himself in
trouble when a Snapchat exchange
with a female went viral, painting
him as a sleaze and womanizer.
But perhaps the worst aspect of
social media is negative feedback.
We’ve all heard the stories about kids,
and even adults, becoming depressed
and even suicidal as a result of cyber
bullying. Much of the criticism is