The Evil of Social Media

We are now in different times where the social media empowers people to use the First Amendment to their advantages voicing what is on their minds.   With some of the events as of late with the Donald Sterling/LA Clippers episode and now PK Subban from the Montreal Canadians, social media users basically say what they want when they want even it is causes a controversy.  

For the readers that don't know, the Boston Bruins went into double overtime last night against the rival Montreal Canadians and lost Game 1 of the Second Round series in the NHL Playoffs.  PK Subban was the star of the Montreal Canadians that scored the winning goal and he happens to be black.   Professional Hockey is the reverse of Professional Basketball where there are not many black players just like in basketball there are not as many white players.   PK Subban is inspirational just like Larry Bird was back in the 1980s showing with a little commitment, desire and talent, you can succeed no matter what your ethnic background is.   Unfortunately, since he is black, a very small select of Twitter users used the social platform to voice their displeasure of PK Subban in a disgraceful way using strong degrading language.  I can understand the passion of being a Boston Bruins fan, but at the same time, I do not understand why people needed to be so unprofessional and mean toward a talented hockey player the happens to be black.   What is also concerning is that the city of Boston has come a long way becoming a world class diverse city that is accepting of all backgrounds and this now takes Boston back.

The unfortunate aspect of social media is that once something is posted, it will always be somewhere on the internet even if they removed the tweet or even the account.   The old saying is that if you need to be negative or controversial, it is better to not use a social platform to voice your opinions.   This is actually not the first time a select few Boston based tweets were directed toward PK Subban.

The evil of social media will always be there, but hopefully we have finally learned a lesson that it is always best to not anything hateful.   Take out your hate in other ways like go to the gym and workout or turn it into positive energy.

Finally, on another note, this makes me think of the non-profit called Sneakers To Beakers, that my good friend Bob Sansone is running and how its purpose is to break down the color barriers and introduce sports and STEM for underprivileged children of all backgrounds.  If only the select evil few on social media had the same mindset as Bob and his non-profit, we would be in a better place.