To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

Last week I talked about twitter, and social networking in general, as a double-edged sword. Where these new technologies are often considered a great tool for marketing, the incident with Kanye West seemed to illustrate that there were some pitfalls high-profile celebrities must also consider when using Social Networking sites. This was extremely evident again this week, this time in the realm of athletics.

Sunday night, after the redskins less-than-stellar (or downright horrible...) preformance against the rams, rookie linebacker Robert Hensen reached out to his twitter account as an outlet for his frustration. Angered by the negative attitude of redskins fans, particularly those in the crowd that Sunday, Hensen twittered “All you fake half hearted Skins fan can . . . I won’t go there but I dislike you very strongly, don’t come to Fed Ex to boo dim wits!!” As if that wasn't enough, Hensen followed that tweet up with, “The question is who are you to say you know what’s best for the team and you work 9 to 5 at Mcdonalds.” As one can expect, this ignited some SERIOUS backlash, sending already frustrated Redskins fans further into a fit of rage. In the wake of the controversy, Hensen apologized, but ultimately ended up deleting his twitter account all together. Hensen reportedly acknowledged he was in the wrong, but admitted he was suprised by the level of backlash he received. In his decision to delete his account, it seems, at least for Hensen, the cons of modern media outweighed the pros.

This also speaks to the questions we raised in class about how social networking sites are changing and evolving. Where SNS were once just a place for people to be themselves and interact with friends, now people are finding they must be much more careful about what they post, and who can see it. Just as a tweet posted out of anger came back to haunt Hensen, so too can a picture from one night of partying hurt a college students when its stumbled upon by a future employer. Thus, as social networking sites evolve, it seems our usership of them must as well.

Twitter Screen Shoots from Mashable.com