As you've seen, I took down the threads discussing Jeff Capel's use of social media and his promotion/re-tweeting/liking tweets that touch on social issues.
Those threads were active, so I wanted to offer an explanation:
First off, I think there's an interesting, informative and even important discussion to have regarding athletes and other public figures who are not political by trade getting involved in political and social issues. Everyone has a platform now via social media, and that raises questions that are really interesting: How should it be used? How does it represent the individual? How does it represent the individual's employer or other parties the individual could be construed as representing? How much responsibility does an individual have for the way his or her social media presence is received and perceived by the fan base?
We're at a very unique time in history, and I think people are still trying to figure out how all of these pieces fit together. Simply putting "Opinions are my own" in your Twitter bio doesn't cut it, in my view; if you are a public figure, you are still affiliated with an organization and your social media presence is going to reflect on that organization regardless of whether you think you have a hall pass in your Twitter bio.
There's also the matter of divisiveness and how it affects our perception. These days, it seems like it's okay for public figures to use their position to comment on social matters - as long as their views align with yours. If their views don't align with yours, then that athlete/actor/reporter/etc. should stick to sports/acting/reporting/etc.
That's a really interesting topic to me, and I think it was discussed at length in the thread I deleted. But because that particular angle is so tricky, inevitably the discussion of how Jeff Capel uses social media will become something of a debate over his viewpoints rather than whether or not he should express them. I do think that there was a lot of conversation on the bigger question - should he be tweeting/retweeting/liking these things? - but before it took a turn for the worse, I took the thread down.
There's enough of a Pitt connection to not make it a truly "OT" discussion topic, but at the same time, there's a point where the discussion has to be curtailed because of the direction it is headed. We'll probably get into this topic again down the road - I'm sure Jeff Capel will be asked about it - and we'll have another discussion at that point.
Thanks for your understanding.
Those threads were active, so I wanted to offer an explanation:
First off, I think there's an interesting, informative and even important discussion to have regarding athletes and other public figures who are not political by trade getting involved in political and social issues. Everyone has a platform now via social media, and that raises questions that are really interesting: How should it be used? How does it represent the individual? How does it represent the individual's employer or other parties the individual could be construed as representing? How much responsibility does an individual have for the way his or her social media presence is received and perceived by the fan base?
We're at a very unique time in history, and I think people are still trying to figure out how all of these pieces fit together. Simply putting "Opinions are my own" in your Twitter bio doesn't cut it, in my view; if you are a public figure, you are still affiliated with an organization and your social media presence is going to reflect on that organization regardless of whether you think you have a hall pass in your Twitter bio.
There's also the matter of divisiveness and how it affects our perception. These days, it seems like it's okay for public figures to use their position to comment on social matters - as long as their views align with yours. If their views don't align with yours, then that athlete/actor/reporter/etc. should stick to sports/acting/reporting/etc.
That's a really interesting topic to me, and I think it was discussed at length in the thread I deleted. But because that particular angle is so tricky, inevitably the discussion of how Jeff Capel uses social media will become something of a debate over his viewpoints rather than whether or not he should express them. I do think that there was a lot of conversation on the bigger question - should he be tweeting/retweeting/liking these things? - but before it took a turn for the worse, I took the thread down.
There's enough of a Pitt connection to not make it a truly "OT" discussion topic, but at the same time, there's a point where the discussion has to be curtailed because of the direction it is headed. We'll probably get into this topic again down the road - I'm sure Jeff Capel will be asked about it - and we'll have another discussion at that point.
Thanks for your understanding.
