The Social Media Activities Of 15 Year Olds Are Not Worth Your Attention
It was inevitable in the aftermath of the Michigan State game: websites looking for #content tell their unpaid intern to type in Blake O'Neill's twitter handle and report back with all the bad things they find there. Copy and paste and you have #viral #content for your crapsite.
That's right! It's a screenshot of a screenshot tweet! Original did not black out usernames FWIW.
Once the crapsites have aggregated their #content, larger players step in to say the most blindingly obvious things possible: that is bad. Don't do that. Something something society. It's obvious that the larger players don't do much more than read the sensationalized headlines thrown out without considering whether they are justified.
Arguing with crapsite proprietors is fruitless since they have found out they have no ability to acquire viewership through doing good work. But I would like to emphasize that I went through every account on both of those posts (neither of which contains a death threat, by the way) in an effort to see if there was something these twitter users have in common. Aside from one Sorry For Partying type named Mitch* who seems to be a current student and a random, lonely Patriots fan with a sad attempt at facial hair, this is what they look like.
![0Muy0_1t[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/69c20a7996dc_13BE7/0Muy0_1t1.jpg "0Muy0_1t[1]")
![FHeqf04H[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/69c20a7996dc_13BE7/FHeqf04H1.jpg "FHeqf04H[1]")
![dk1ld5f9[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/69c20a7996dc_13BE7/dk1ld5f91.jpg "dk1ld5f9[1]")
![mxJ9scP5[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/69c20a7996dc_13BE7/mxJ9scP51.jpg "mxJ9scP5[1]")
![v_D_Lp7U[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/69c20a7996dc_13BE7/v_D_Lp7U1.png "v_D_Lp7U[1]")
it goes without saying but don't harass these children
They are literally children. The third and fourth are the "death threat" issuers**. They are about as dangerous as an egg salad sandwich. They are approximately 15. They spend 90% of every day thinking about how great it will be when they get to put their hand up a girl's shirt. They represent nothing other than the fact that a healthy slice of teenage boys don't know how to act. I and much of the readership will know this from personal experience. We were fortunate to not have twitter.
Scolding these kids is pointless. They will learn, and then there will be a new generation of them writing the same stuff on FaceSnaps 2030. Extrapolating anything about any fanbase from the portion of it that has a phone but not a driver's license is equally pointless. If you're going to report on it you should know that your next article should be about what Becky told Morgan in the locker room about McKinley.
We now have "global access to the written opinions of morons." It sucks for Blake O'Neill that Scott Tenorman got all up in his mentions, but it's worse that #content farms continually try to spin the hormonal excesses of the nation's youth into pageviews. Twitter should seek to implement a technological fix for this kind of pile-on. Until they do the snap decisions of children should be ignored by people who don't know them.
Go ahead and be proud of the fact that your reject these notions if you have such low expectations of yourself. Be proud of the fact that you think cancer sucks, too, while you're at it. It's about as useful an activity. One day we will beat twitter and cancer by scowling about them on the internet. You just wait.
*[You suck, Mitch.]
**[It should be noted again that neither of those tweets is any kind of threat. As far as terrible things said to people in the aftermath of Bad Sports Event go if that's the best you can come up with things are going pretty well.]
October 19th, 2015 at 4:23 PM ^
October 20th, 2015 at 12:01 AM ^
They effectively lost, though they technically "won."
The rest of college football recognizes this and that stings them. Any coach who can take the same team and in 9 months make them feared is a force (as if we didn't know already).
The reason this doesn't bug me is that they didn't cheat (as much) to win as 1990 or 2001. Times are changing
October 19th, 2015 at 8:29 PM ^
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October 19th, 2015 at 3:54 PM ^
October 19th, 2015 at 8:40 PM ^
Yeah dude, fuck Kevin.
October 19th, 2015 at 3:55 PM ^
Thanks. Thanks for researching this. Your abilities to uncover who sent this nonsense are 1000x my abilities. Good to know that for the most part, it wasn't adults saying stupid things.
Crap. I have a 14 year old son. He and half of his Freshman football team buddies have the ability to be complete jerks. Unthinking morons. Thankfully, he has no twitter account. I will be using this as a teaching tool.
This also reminds me of how very thankful I am that there was no Internet, no texting or social media, in my teenage years. I have done so many stupid things. I'm glad there is no record of them out there.
Serious question, based on this:
Scolding these kids is pointless. They will learn, and then there will be a new generation of them writing the same stuff on FaceSnaps 2030.
Admitting the stupidity of 15 year old boys with phones and internet access, When are they held accountable? When should they be made to understand the offensiveness of their actions? You say they will learn: just how will they learn if nothing happens? I mean, I get that they are idiot 15 year old boys who don't think before they act. But I also feel uneasy with the old "boys will be boys, shake your head and let it go, pointless to scold," attitude. Yeah, they shouldn't be "charged as adults" and locked up. But that doesn't mean nothing should happen.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:11 PM ^
I'd like to imagine the parents of these kids don't know who and what their children are tweeting. I don't think we as a community or a society should punish the teenagers, but I would hope these kids have parents who would fulfill that task. To the teenager who wrote a death threat, I think he needs some therapy. No matter how angry he is about sports (or any other issue), sending a death threat should not be taken lightly. Perhaps he shouldn't be allowed to watch sports fow ahwile.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:26 PM ^
Take away his phone and/or his computer. That'll learn him.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:37 PM ^
That's kind of where I land with this as well. I know its a touchy subject because you don't want the kids doing it to face an angry mob, but after 4chan and Oregon how does someone in Hackett's position assume that this time its not for real, or at least set the expectation that you can't tweet out stuff like that no matter how old you are?
October 19th, 2015 at 4:43 PM ^
Totally agree with you. Kids these days have no concept of accountability because they have no fear of the consequences of their actions. Growing up in the 80''s and 90's, my father always knew when I messed up and he would let me know about it too. Today's concept of "time out" discipline has made parents soft and has given control to the kids...which is why you have stupid ish like this happen.These kids' parents should smack these numbskulls upside their heads and then make them formally apologize to Blake.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:54 PM ^
I don't know what should happen exactly. But I think in some way, the parents should know what happened. And I'd love to see Twitter or other forums have some mechanism to deal with minors. IIRC, at some websites, you have to be a certain age, or have parental permission, in order to have an account. I know as a parent that when I know what's going on, I can act appropriately. But I have seen plenty of parents who are pretty unengaged.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:03 PM ^
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October 19th, 2015 at 4:12 PM ^
In spite of that, not entirely unexpected result, I still wouldn't mind seeing the team re-enacting this scene:
October 19th, 2015 at 4:14 PM ^
Twitter is half of what's keeping most news organizations afloat...mass casualty incident? You can be sure one of the top headlines at CNN will be celebrity tweets. Thankfully we can find out 120 characters worth of what Rhianna thinks about the latest foreign policy crisis within minutes now.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:22 PM ^
Until I know that Kim Kardashian has weighed in on the treaty with Iran.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:28 PM ^
See how this kid is like squinting his eyes in this selfie? Clearly he's a badass
October 19th, 2015 at 6:32 PM ^
October 19th, 2015 at 6:46 PM ^
For a minute I thought he was that bro Business major from a few months back, the one who wanted money from student government to make a video for that song which was/wasn't going to replace "The Victors."
Or maybe I was mistaken by the same level of maturity.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:32 PM ^
and thanks for you know actually doing some reporting here.
I wish ESPN and the national media would spend 5 minbutes and actually research without putting out these "stories". It makes our fanbase look like a bunch of idiots, when only a small portion of our teenage boys are idiots.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:32 PM ^
Just dont...it will make your life better.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:37 PM ^
First, I am several decades north of 15, and yet you seem to be suggesting that I should no longer spend 90% of every day thinking about putting a hand up a woman's shirt? Second, I want to know what Becky told Morgan in the locker room about McKinley, and yet you refuse to tell me?
That does it -- I'm taking my business to another crapsite.
October 19th, 2015 at 6:25 PM ^
Let's not be all hetero-normative! There's no evidence that they're not thinking about putting their hand down another young man's pants. Remember, just becasue they might be gay doesn't mean they can't be an asshole, too. In fact, the closeted ones tend to be the biggest douchebags.
October 19th, 2015 at 9:34 PM ^
For a second I seriously thought Becky was some nickname for Time Beckman and Morgan was Desmond Morgan. I thought I missed out on some uplifting quote or whatever that Beckman told Morgan about President McKinley.
October 19th, 2015 at 4:52 PM ^
Brian should not be posting pictures of children.
October 19th, 2015 at 7:40 PM ^
Children shouldn't be posting pictures of themselves.
Children shouldn't be posting pictures of themselves and then threatening other people, athletes or otherwise.
Children shouldn't be posting pictures of themselves, threatening other people, and then be surprised if there are consequences.
It's not like Brian took these pictures, or that it would have been that difficult for anyone else to find them. These idiots think they're ready for the real world -- I hope somebody they know reads this blog and tells their parents what their perfect little children have been doing in their spare time.
October 19th, 2015 at 5:01 PM ^
This is a sensitive issue for me, so I won't make a big soap box disagreement, but I don't agree that 15 year olds completely are harmless. Social media has given bullies an avenue to spew their anger - some in totally anonymous ways - Yik Yak as a recent example. My son has been on the recieving end of some pretty hurtful things. Blake O'Neil is better euipped to deal with comments like these, but they are just an extension of how they treat and act to their peers. It is pretty sickening the things that the small percentage of these can control over the right audience, typically kids like mine with high functioning autism are an easy target for them.
With that said, I will agree that death threats by a pubescent child are almost harmless and not as serious as was reported, but the usage of social media and bullying is a larger issue that our schools and society are not ready or equipped to deal with. Okay it was a medium sized soap box. Good article Brian and thanks for looking into this.
October 19th, 2015 at 5:09 PM ^
Except for ol' Mitch. You linked to it, so I checked his Twitter account. Wow is that guy a douchecanoe. His last few tweets (the ones that weren't deleted, evidently) reveal him to be:
- Racist
- Narcissistic
- Lazy
- Combative
All that without scrolling down the page.
October 19th, 2015 at 7:07 PM ^
OF COURSE NOT.
Now, I know the word "typecasting" wasn't used in Brian's original post, but I do think it's part of the motivation for his original post: "there are non-UM fans generalizing us because of these tweets and I am going to make my best effort to show why that generalization is wrong."
But --- to be fair, that should go ditto for other college football fanbases too. For instance, all MSU fans are not "juggalos", and neither should that be implied either. :-)
College football, for whatever reason, is unique among sports in terms of fans of one team/school seeming to LOVE to typecast fans of other schools.
October 19th, 2015 at 8:08 PM ^
October 19th, 2015 at 6:22 PM ^
We're naming people McKinley now?
That's it. I'm done with this world.
October 19th, 2015 at 6:34 PM ^
the kids' parents take appropriate action.
October 19th, 2015 at 6:50 PM ^
October 19th, 2015 at 6:55 PM ^
October 19th, 2015 at 7:18 PM ^
Somewhat unrelated, but here's a FACT: No matter the rivalry record in football, basketball, baseball, or any other sport.........Michigan will always be Michigan and Michigan State will always be, well..........Michigan State.
October 19th, 2015 at 7:59 PM ^
October 19th, 2015 at 8:09 PM ^
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October 19th, 2015 at 8:15 PM ^
This must be just a coincidence (right?), but did anyone notice that the guy that flicked off the cameras and is in the picture that leads off One Frame at a Time is a Patriots fan... like Mitch... whose Twitter account now seems to have been deleted...?
October 19th, 2015 at 8:19 PM ^
... I enjoyed your take on this Brian. Very well done.
October 19th, 2015 at 8:23 PM ^
Instead of giving all this internet to stories of unattributed prepubescents threatening harm to our [FANTASTIC] punter, why aren't they giving more internet to the ACTUAL HARM done to the MSU player who scored the winning touchdown by his own teammates?
October 19th, 2015 at 9:19 PM ^
To be fair, it's not like they were trying to hurt him. They got excited, and the result was awful.
What bothered me about it was watching the Spartans celebrate at the other end of the stadium while one of their teammates was down on the turf. Eventually, they all went over to him, but it seemed to take a long time before they realized he was hurt. I was just thankful to see the kid get up -- I couldn't tell if he had moved, but I saw them bring the backboard out, and that's never a good sign.
October 19th, 2015 at 8:37 PM ^
defended O'Neill. He basically said that this is entertainment, that it's a lot harder to kick a small spot on a ball than people think especially with people rushing at you, and that O'Neill did a great job up to that point.
When an opposing coach feels compelled to say something you know a situation has gotten out of control.
October 19th, 2015 at 8:38 PM ^
October 19th, 2015 at 9:46 PM ^
I always wondered how many actual "death threats" people get, or if they are just mentioned so Joe Tessitore can sound empathetic.
This is a great write-up Brian, and it reminds me of the Sympathy for the Devil one you did about Frank Clark.
October 19th, 2015 at 11:00 PM ^
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October 20th, 2015 at 2:13 AM ^
That the national media turned this into a major story and it was a bunch of dumb kids who made the threats. I hope Jim and the team know the true story! Our AD should of had a fact check that 99.9 % support Blake!
October 20th, 2015 at 8:08 AM ^
Two kids, two tweets, national news. I think it's pretty bad that national headlines are driven now by comments made on twitter or facebook without some fact checking, doesn't anyone every play devil's advocate? Thanks Brian, this again just proves that MGoBlog is a major resource for the us the fans, and the University. You dug up the truth, uncovered the real story. Although, I think the damage has already been done. Thankfully the damage is probably very minimal and we'll move past it quickly.
October 20th, 2015 at 9:22 AM ^
Get behind the movement......
https://www.facebook.com/We-Support-Wolverine-Blake-ONeill-503609193147…
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