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The Social Media World Cup

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The 2014 World Cup has reached every aspect of modern life, thanks to social media

The 2014 World Cup has reached every aspect of modern life, thanks to social media

They say generation Y, my generation, has lived through some of the most rapid technological advances that have ever been seen. I have to say, I don’t remember a time when mobile phones weren’t around. I can only just remember a time with dial-up internet (anyone who has heard that dialling tone will never forget it) and even I, now, accept selfies as a legitimate form of photography. So I am vaguely aware of change occurring. That said, I didn’t realise the extent of this technological change until I watched the 2014 world cup.

The other day, I was sitting in my living room with my friends, and we had a huge dilemma – do we watch Brazil v Cameroon, Mexico v Croatia, or Wimbledon? Through the wonders of modern technology, we realised, let’s just watch them all. The delicate process of setting up laptops and televisions at the correct angles so everyone could see all 3 matches at once was definitely worth it. I think. I spent as much time watching the screens as I did on my tablet, looking at Twitter and Facebook. At this point it hit me: consuming entertainment, especially live sport, has completely changed, not just in my lifetime, but in the 4 years since the last world cup.

Twitter is a brilliantly strange world. It keeps me abreast of progress in a multitude of worlds that I attempt to inhabit. It always knows the release dates for upcoming films first, it tells me what my friends had for breakfast (and shows me they added a picture as proof), and informs me about every transfer rumour, request, and completion. The 140 character limit doesn’t stop full-match reports, and it certainly doesn’t prevent watching amazing moments of sporting brilliance, or stupidity, over and over. I didn’t have Twitter during the last World Cup; I had only just discovered Facebook, but I can say with 100% certainty that it was not used like it is today.

As I am writing this article, I have my Twitter feed open on a split window (oh the wonders of modern computers) and I can see that 7 of my trends relate to the World Cup, 2 to Wimbledon and the last to Glastonbury, and that all the tweets (barring one from Ewan McGregor about the opening ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games) are about starting XI’s at the world cup, Luis Suarez’s ban, and who Liverpool are signing next. It’s brilliant; I really don’t need to look elsewhere to find out any news I want. The side bar fills me in on latest scores. I even follow the world cup ball Brazuca, whose witty comments are the most clandestine advertising campaign that I have seen (and bought into) in many years.

So where am I actually going with this, I don’t know? Basically, the way I (and many of us) get our latest news isn’t from Ceefax or News at 10, but from the internet and social media. I heard about Suarez’s ban on there first, and I complained about the responses to England’s exit on Twitter first. I really like being up on transfer news; I like knowing that Lallana has been seen at Melwood. I like getting the starting XI of Iran v Nigeria just in time for me to change my fantasy football team.

Social media has allowed everyone to have an opinion on everything, and has broadened the pool of knowledge and sources to which I am exposed. It has undoubtedly increased my football and sporting knowledge. Gone are the days when I had to google who Liverpool were signing next; nowadays, I already know who they are, and all the important things about them. I like Vine videos of crazy goals or skills that are constantly reblogged all over the internet. A sports nut like me doesn’t ever have to leave the realms of social media to have their fill of sporting content.

This said, I can’t help but feel nostalgic for the days when I watched the TV through the semi-transparent Ceefax page that allowed me to sort of keep up with the scores whilst watching my favourite programmes. I miss the days when people sat and watched the football, and didn’t have their phones and Ipads in front of their faces.

(I am trying my best to not rant about this point, but it really does my head in when I am at home and I would have liked to have gone to a match, and the camera cuts to a person watching it through a tablet. If you wanted to watch it through a screen, stay at home and watch it on the TV and let me have your seat!)

Watching sport has become as much about voicing your opinion on the latest news as viewing the spectacle itself, and, I have to say, I sometimes worry about getting my sport from someone else’s opinions on it rather than watching the event itself.

I feel slightly hypocritical, I complain all the time about blogging, live-tweeting, and constantly looking at our phones, yet I am still going to do it, because, well, it’s just what we do these days! And I refuse to miss out on anything just because I haven’t logged on for a week or 2.

So if you get nothing else from this, come follow me on twitter: @lizhannah25.

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