Sure, I have a Facebook page, but haven’t made the plunge into Twitter just yet.
At least there is some level of privacy with Facebook given you get to choose who your ‘friends’ are, but Twitter posts and can be viewed by anyone and everyone.
As a result, media scrutiny has become even more intense with most newspapers now having dedicated social media reporters who scan the internet looking for something that might create a headline.
This means that players have to be even more careful with what they do, or say, publicly.
Even when you’re out somewhere, seemingly away from prying eyes, all it takes is for someone to whip out there iPhone and within seconds your every move is being documented for millions of people.
At the Lions (and I imagine it to be the case at all AFL clubs) we’re regularly educated on social media and where the boundaries are in terms of its use. And there have been a few examples of late involving other clubs that have been brought up within our group as a case in point.
One such example surrounded some of the Carlton boys’ comments towards umpires a few weeks ago which ended up costing them a pretty hefty fine from the AFL. There are plenty of boys at the Lions who love their Twitter, and it pretty much hit home some of the damage that can be caused by just a couple of simple off-handed remarks.
But it’s not all bad.
Twitter, in particular, lets a lot of our Lions fans get closer to the players by ‘following’ what they get up to outside of the Gabba's confines. It probably helps humanise us players a bit as well because it shows that we do have lives and personalities away from the Club!
The main Twitter culprits at the Lions are Brent Staker, Daniel Merrett and Tom Rockliff - although it seems all the boys are onto it these days.
Rog seems to use Twitter to share his tastes in music, Rocky loves to pump up his Challenge segment on LIONS TV, while Stakes usually has something pretty profound to say.
They all do it in good fun and, importantly, don’t get caught up in anything too controversial.
I suggest that if you want a bit of light entertainment and information about what our guys get up to in their spare time, then absolutely get on board and follow them.
But don’t waste your time trying to find Jonathan Brown on Twitter. The big fella isn’t the biggest fan of the whole social media thing and reckons he'll never see the need or want to start up a Facebook or Twitter account.
