STOP TWEETING RECRUITS

Here is some advice:  just follow people who follow recruiting (Steve from 247, TomVH, Sam Webb).  They will tell you everything you need to know.  If a kid tweets something of merit, they will retweet it.

Maybe it's because I deal with teenagers on a daily basis, but following the thought progressions and digital interactions is something I tend to drift away from.

I hate people. Pretty much all of them. 

Yet another reminder of why recruiting is basically the worst. The students themselves need to cool it on making the process so public, the parents need to curb their kids' engagement with fanbases, the coaches need to stop trying to one-up one another on the recruiting trail, and fanbases need to back the hell off and let these kids make an informed decision.

In this case, I simply don't understand the mindset of someone who follows a high school kid they don't know on Twitter, merely because there's a chance said kid could go to said fan's favorite university. Much less a fan that would try to talk to a kid on Twitter.

Theoretically, we're adults. Let's act like adults.

I am a teacher and I was just working with a 16-year-old who suffers from anxiety, and I thought about this other 16-year-old kid with ridiculous ability. I just don't know how most adults could deal with this stuff. Yes, he's blessed with amazing talent and yes, he's given all these opportunities, but it doesn't make it easy, and it certainly doesn't give justification for anonymous pussies to bash this kid. 

Nobody is who they say they are on the internet.

So, I'm assuming MGoBlog user, LordGrantham, is one of the morons who tweets recruits since he is the only one to down vote this thread.

can't you make your Twitter handle (is that what it's called?) private or public?  If I was a recruit wanting to shield myself from fan harassment, I would simply keep my Twitter account private - if that is possible.  

 Seriously, the cons far out weigh the pros of being an athlete or another type of public figure on twitter. When you have millions of people who are fans, you don't think 100 or so are mentally unstable enough to at least send a negative tweet or go even further. It's the other side of the coin for those hat picking ceremony crap.

 Sending out a message to sane people doesn't change what the lunatic fringe is going to do

Fans of team > fans who show passing interest in team's recruiting, maybe reading about commitments in the sports section > fans with avid enough interest in team's recruiting to use online resources like Rivals and Scout > fans who follow recruiting closely enough to follow recruits on Twitter > fans who will actually tweet recruits > fans who will tweet them with negative commentary in reaction to bad news. 

I know he's just a kid, but I hope he at least has that perspective.

However, I'm definitely not saying these asshole "fans" are in any way, shape, or form NOT the ones who are the guilty party here. 

No, but I do think it's probably bad form to be shaming the kid for having a Twitter account, or presuming to second guess his motives.  There's a good chance he may not read MGoBlog, but it's been well established that MANY RECRUITS DO.

So instead of telling them what they should or shouldn't be doing, let's just say 'Good luck to the dude, hope he comes back here eventually' and *leave it at that*  Doing anything remotely critical (like, saying the kids need to grow thicker skins, as some here have said) does absolutely nothing to help M's cause.

* Also, let's not kid ourselves - there are plenty of shitbags in our fanbase who are neg-tweeting Harris and other decommits.  The fact that we have less shitbag fans than OSU doesn't mean we have zero of them ourselves.

I'm willing to bet that 99.99% of Michigan fans don't tweet recruits. 

Should I send that to Damien on Twitter? /s

If these so called Michigan fans were not Michigan fans at all. Probably spartakus or bucknut fans trying to cause trouble with one of our recruits.

As a relatively old man around here, I want to make an ignorant statement about the Twitters, but I think it may be important nonetheless. First, I’ve never done a tweet. Second, I don’t even really know why people think they can say anything in such a short burst of letters. Third, relevant to Michigan, wouldn’t it be good for Michigan fans to tweet positive things about recruits to help offset all the jerks saying negative stuff? If everyone refrains from saying positive stuff, and the haterz keep saying negative stuff, it makes us look even worse. I like to post positive stuff on this board about recruits who select other schools because I figure they may read our stuff. Lets respect them by saying we appreciate their interest in UM, even if we were only second best in their final decision. Just curious, anyone think we should not say positive stuff about recruits here?