Down With The New Technology
Jun. 13th, 2015 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanSo...
I joined Instagram a couple of months ago, much to the surprise & sarcasm of a few people, who seemed to think that nobody over the age of 26 would know what it was. Most of my feed is photography-related (National Geographic, EarthPix, the Instagram home page), with a few friends & the odd interest (Taylor Swift??!!??) thrown in for variety
As well as the homepage for my NRL team, the Manly Sea Eagles, where they usually post things like team-members out & about in the community, suporting various causes & smiling for the cameras while doing so, video snippets of pre-game warm-ups & photos of match highlights. So far, so Marketing
Now, there's been a bit of media frenzy over the future of our halfback Daly Cherry-Evans (DCE) these last months, as he's been the subject of a bidding war between my club & another. And first, he went with them, but the NRL rules say he had until a certain date to change his mind, Which he did, after a counter-offer was finalised by our Club. So far, so Marketable. And all within the rules as they stood
To celebrate retaining their marquee player, the Manly Sea-Eagles posted to Instagram, a special offer on merchandise, with various percentages off various items you can wear, wave, or stick to things.Of course, they used an image of DCE to promote this
So, okay, he chased the money a bit... But wouldn't we all? The 'career' of an NRL player is 15 years tops, usually all over by the age of 35, by which time you're usually hobbling around on 4 knee-reconstructions, a chronic back or neck injury, 4 broken noses, a shoulder that won't stay located & god-only-knows how many concussions. What to do with all that after you 'retire' at 35, before you've even hit what used to be accepted as middle-age? After all, the Footy Show still has most of the same presenters it had on its debut 20 years ago & the same goes for the ex-players promoting Lowes clothing lines. And the best journalists in Rugby League are usually those who never played the game, so can be relied upon to string together a coherent article
With one exception
Phil Gould is an ex-player & coach & a well-respected voice in the game, even if he does run the Penrith Panthers Club these days, but nobody's perfect. His article on the media & fan frenzy over DCE pretty much nailed the issue for me, with facts, analysis & without bias, personal criticism or praise. Which is a rare thing indeed in the world of football in general... & Rugby League is no exception
So, back to Instagram... One of the first posts regarding their merchandise sale that the Club posted, attracted a barrage of comments - mostly directed at DCE & his lack of loyalty & supposed greed in daring to secure a larger salary for what is guaranteed to be a truncated 'career'. Never mind that it helped him to stay at the Club he got his start with & wants to finish with - One of these comments labelled him a 'grub' with a few other adjectives thrown in
And so, I posted my first ever Instagram comment, recommending that the person who'd labelled DCE thusly, should read Phil Gould's article before jumping to conclusions. That's all. No name-calling, no denigration, no abuse, just an opportunity to expand one's viewpoint
His response? "Im not gonna read that article champ. He has his opinion & I have mine. Good luck with that staple remover of yours" (A reference to one of the photos on my Instagram page)
So far, not so bad really. No real invective or abuse, just a little denigration & the fact that I HATE being called 'champ'. Certainly not as bad as the other response I got, which simply said "Asskisser" (Surely in Australia, one can expect to be called an arse-kisser... not the lazy USA-spelled equivalent??!!) And, at least he'd taken the time to view my photos before crafting a response. All good for my page's stats at the very least
I think it's really just the proud declaration of ignorance over information that gets me. The fact that he's much happier taking a knee-jerk reactionary stance against something he really knows nothing about, than taking the opportunity & time to better understand an issue he clearly has feelings about & cares enough to make them public... then, when someone offers him a different view, he dismisses it with a variation on 'If you're not with me, you're against me'
So what, I hear you say... it's only football. Except it's really not
You don't have to look much deeper to find that this same attitude applies to far more important things than which player goes where. Liberal vs Labor in both State & Federal politics for example. With not much ideologically separating the two parties these days, it's the old, outdated 'Toffs against Workers' that still holds alarming sway in grassrootsdebates arguments about how our country is administered. The taking in of refugees? They're only here to steal our jobs - something that wasn't true in the 1950s when the Europeans arrived, nor the 1970s when the Vietnamese arrived, nor this millennium, when the persecuted & dispossessed members of the wrong minority strand of Islam flee here for their lives. You know the real reason you never see an 'Aussie' sweeping streets or cleaning toilets? We're too good for that shit... we'd rather go surfing on the Dole
And if the surf's no good, we'd rather listen to old white men on the radio, re-inforcing those outdated stereotypes with no evidence, just the brute force of their personalities, wilfully ignorant convictions & a mute button if anyone dares to disagree with them on-air
Do we see any parallels here? Once upon a time, it was only a few voices preaching such malarkey & we could hope & pray that the masses weren't all taking it in by the spoonful. But they were. They are. And the advent of social media means that now everyone can make their opinion heard, even in the smallest way... but with so many outlets, there are so many of them
And, apparently, you're a f@#$ing stupid w@#$er f@$$ot if you disagree with them. Because it's so much easier to abuse people using 2 thumbs, than it is to open a book, a newspaper, or a mind...
Help.....................................................................!!
I joined Instagram a couple of months ago, much to the surprise & sarcasm of a few people, who seemed to think that nobody over the age of 26 would know what it was. Most of my feed is photography-related (National Geographic, EarthPix, the Instagram home page), with a few friends & the odd interest (Taylor Swift??!!??) thrown in for variety
As well as the homepage for my NRL team, the Manly Sea Eagles, where they usually post things like team-members out & about in the community, suporting various causes & smiling for the cameras while doing so, video snippets of pre-game warm-ups & photos of match highlights. So far, so Marketing
Now, there's been a bit of media frenzy over the future of our halfback Daly Cherry-Evans (DCE) these last months, as he's been the subject of a bidding war between my club & another. And first, he went with them, but the NRL rules say he had until a certain date to change his mind, Which he did, after a counter-offer was finalised by our Club. So far, so Marketable. And all within the rules as they stood
To celebrate retaining their marquee player, the Manly Sea-Eagles posted to Instagram, a special offer on merchandise, with various percentages off various items you can wear, wave, or stick to things.Of course, they used an image of DCE to promote this
So, okay, he chased the money a bit... But wouldn't we all? The 'career' of an NRL player is 15 years tops, usually all over by the age of 35, by which time you're usually hobbling around on 4 knee-reconstructions, a chronic back or neck injury, 4 broken noses, a shoulder that won't stay located & god-only-knows how many concussions. What to do with all that after you 'retire' at 35, before you've even hit what used to be accepted as middle-age? After all, the Footy Show still has most of the same presenters it had on its debut 20 years ago & the same goes for the ex-players promoting Lowes clothing lines. And the best journalists in Rugby League are usually those who never played the game, so can be relied upon to string together a coherent article
With one exception
Phil Gould is an ex-player & coach & a well-respected voice in the game, even if he does run the Penrith Panthers Club these days, but nobody's perfect. His article on the media & fan frenzy over DCE pretty much nailed the issue for me, with facts, analysis & without bias, personal criticism or praise. Which is a rare thing indeed in the world of football in general... & Rugby League is no exception
So, back to Instagram... One of the first posts regarding their merchandise sale that the Club posted, attracted a barrage of comments - mostly directed at DCE & his lack of loyalty & supposed greed in daring to secure a larger salary for what is guaranteed to be a truncated 'career'. Never mind that it helped him to stay at the Club he got his start with & wants to finish with - One of these comments labelled him a 'grub' with a few other adjectives thrown in
And so, I posted my first ever Instagram comment, recommending that the person who'd labelled DCE thusly, should read Phil Gould's article before jumping to conclusions. That's all. No name-calling, no denigration, no abuse, just an opportunity to expand one's viewpoint
His response? "Im not gonna read that article champ. He has his opinion & I have mine. Good luck with that staple remover of yours" (A reference to one of the photos on my Instagram page)
So far, not so bad really. No real invective or abuse, just a little denigration & the fact that I HATE being called 'champ'. Certainly not as bad as the other response I got, which simply said "Asskisser" (Surely in Australia, one can expect to be called an arse-kisser... not the lazy USA-spelled equivalent??!!) And, at least he'd taken the time to view my photos before crafting a response. All good for my page's stats at the very least
I think it's really just the proud declaration of ignorance over information that gets me. The fact that he's much happier taking a knee-jerk reactionary stance against something he really knows nothing about, than taking the opportunity & time to better understand an issue he clearly has feelings about & cares enough to make them public... then, when someone offers him a different view, he dismisses it with a variation on 'If you're not with me, you're against me'
So what, I hear you say... it's only football. Except it's really not
You don't have to look much deeper to find that this same attitude applies to far more important things than which player goes where. Liberal vs Labor in both State & Federal politics for example. With not much ideologically separating the two parties these days, it's the old, outdated 'Toffs against Workers' that still holds alarming sway in grassroots
And if the surf's no good, we'd rather listen to old white men on the radio, re-inforcing those outdated stereotypes with no evidence, just the brute force of their personalities, wilfully ignorant convictions & a mute button if anyone dares to disagree with them on-air
Do we see any parallels here? Once upon a time, it was only a few voices preaching such malarkey & we could hope & pray that the masses weren't all taking it in by the spoonful. But they were. They are. And the advent of social media means that now everyone can make their opinion heard, even in the smallest way... but with so many outlets, there are so many of them
And, apparently, you're a f@#$ing stupid w@#$er f@$$ot if you disagree with them. Because it's so much easier to abuse people using 2 thumbs, than it is to open a book, a newspaper, or a mind...
Help.....................................................................!!
