Daily Sports Column (Japanese) Here / トレバーの虎場コラムはこちら
Twitter is a world unto itself, as proven by the term Twitterverse. It’s a strange place, though. I see it as a game of sorts, and all of us are players. But within the game, there are both roles and rules. And so I ask myself: who am I in this universe, and how can I play the game successfully?
First, I am not a loud voice. I do not have the blue checkmark next to my name (indicating that I am a verified account), nor will I ever get one. But then, I have received multiple follows in the past year from current and former NPB players. Perhaps they see me as legitimate media. I’ve also gotten followed (and subsequently unfollowed) by some of the local Tigers beat reporters. At the very least, perhaps I am a valuable follow to some.
After all, I am one of the few places to find detailed news about the Hanshin Tigers in English… and there are (believe it or not) quite a few people who want that news! Maybe I’m like pseudo-media? Quasi-media?
But I’m also just like every other fan out there. I watch games, cheer for the guys to win, get swayed by the action and feel frustration when bad plays occur or when the team goes through long cold spells. And like all fans out there in the Twitterverse, I blow off some of that steam in 280 or fewer characters.
So now the question remains: what is acceptable behavior in this world? What can be said, and what is best kept to oneself? (After all, the option also exists for every Twitter user to not say everything they think!)
The other day I got a direct message from one of my blue checkmark friends:
I hadn’t realized that (a) baseball players read my tweets, and (b) they might not appreciate my sharp wit, sarcasm or critiques.
But he was right. There were definitely times I could have kept my comments to myself. But my comments are not half as harsh or critical as some of the other stuff I read out there! Just because I have a column in the paper, doesn’t mean I have to follow their rules of turning mediocrity into divinity, does it? (In case you were unaware, Hanshin media has a tendency to make superstars out of pedestrian players.)
So what’s the answer? Who am I, and how should I relate to others out there? The only answer I could come up with was the classic, cliche Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
And since I am pretty mentally fragile and hate being criticized, perhaps it’s time I take it easy on the eyes of my Twitter followers. Not only are the players out there doing their best, as my blue-marked follower pointed out, but so are the managers and team executives.
Perhaps if we all take a step back and remember to keep our sense of humanity, even when sitting behind a protective screen, even in the uber-critical world of social media, we can all enjoy life on this planet just a little bit more.
But at the same time, let me be a fan every now and then, too.