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Camille Mackedon

Professor Gonzalez

ENC 1102

30 April 2023

The Impact of Fame on Sports Performance

INTRODUCTION

In America, sports are a huge thing many people enjoy. Social Media is another thing that

many people utilize and enjoy. It is unavoidable for athletes who perform well and win

championships and receive medals and rings to become well-known. But can this fame be a good

thing or a bad thing? I think that knowing about the impacts that media and fame can have on

professional athletes is important because it can affect the way sports conferences, sports

magazines, social media posts, and sports articles are done. It’s important for media to take into

consideration that what their posting may have an effect on an athlete's performance and or

mental health. With social media in this day and age, it gives a platform to anyone who wants to

express their opinions on sports players which then affects an athlete's performance and mental

health.

This topic is important to me because I grew up playing softball, had goals of playing at

the collegiate level, and was even scouted by colleges. Something that really had an impact on

being recruited was posting your achievements on social media for college coaches to see.

Playing a sport there are always going to be ups and downs and it was always fun to post my
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achievements, but when I wasn't performing well I had nothing to post about myself. This took a

toll on my self-confidence because seeing other people post about always performing well made

me feel like I wasn't good enough, leading me to over-working myself and eventually getting

burnt out. Therefore, I find it very interesting to see how social media can affect professional

athletes, similar to the way social media affected me especially since professional athletes have

such a huge audience and platform.

LITERATURE REVIEW

I gained an understanding of what the current “conversation” is all about regarding my

chosen topic. The current conversation is whether these particular things such as social media,

articles, news, etc, affect an athlete's overall sports performance. People understand that being a

collegiate, or professional athlete is already hard enough, but can the media make it harder?

That’s exactly what I want to find answers to and further research.

My strongest source would be “The New Window to Athletes’ Soul- What Social Media

Tells Us About Athletes’ Performances” by Arne Gruettner, Min Vitisvorakarn, Thiemo

Wambsganss, Roman Rietsche, and Andrea Black. Not only does this source help further my

research topic, but it provides me with lots of valuable information. This source actually gathered

information from athletes right before a tennis match. They analyzed over 100,000 tweets and

connected that to their match-day performances (Gruettner et al., 2020). This source connects to

my other chosen sources in a few ways. This source discusses the negative impacts social media

can have on an athlete’s sports performance, which is entirely what my other sources also

discuss.
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My second strongest source would most certainly be “An Exploration of the distractions

inherent to social media use among Athletes” by Michelle Hayes, Kevin Filo, Andrea Geurin,

and Caroline Riot. The authors view this topic as a contribution to an ongoing topic because

there is a huge debate among sport stakeholder over what the appropriate use of social media is

among athletes. This source is very similar to my other chosen sources in many views, but also

provides an alternate view to this research “conversation.” This source focuses on the positive

and negative impacts of media on sports performance but further discusses how it can be

presented as a major distraction, including positive and unwanted messages, branding pressures,

and competitor content (Hayes et al., 2020).

“The Impact Of Social Media On The Mental Health Of Student-Athletes” by Jessica K.

Brougham provides a different view of the ongoing “conversation” by focusing on the mental

health of athletes and how media can affect it. This source provided many useful examples of

athletes who receive hateful comments on social media which can not only affect the way an

athlete plays but more importantly affect that athlete's mental health. Many athletes have social

media platforms on Twitter such as Cade Foster, an Alabama football kicker, who would receive

many hate comments directed at him and his family (Brougham, 2021). This example serves as

an instance where the use of social media among athletes can really affect their mental health.

When adding this source and discussing it in my annotated bibliography it made me think about

how I shouldn't just focus on the performance side of this research conversation but also the

mental health side because it's really important.

In the article “Research on the Relationship between excessive use of social media and

young athletes’ physical activity” the authors talk about the ambivalent effect social media can
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have on the physical activity of young athletes. This article is different from my other sources

being that it focuses on not athletes as a whole but younger athletes and how their relationship

with social media can negatively affect them. It discusses the psychological disorders you can

develop which adds a different view to the research conversation. Not only can social media

affect an athlete's performance but it can cause horrible disorders to develop (Hudimova et al.,

2021). This source provides valuable and useful evidence based on results gathered from google

forms and statistical analysis done on athletes.

Lastly, in the article “Media Hype and Its Influence” Cynthia Frisby, and Wayne Wanta

bring exposure and discuss the stress that collegiate athletes go through that can come from

many different sources. They add to the ongoing research conversation by discovering that media

is the biggest influence on athletes. Their results showed that the media can brutally critique

collegiate athletes, and even make some athletes' personal lives feel invaded. This source is

similar to my other sources being it discusses the positive and negative aspects of the use of

media while being an athlete (Wanta & Frisby, 2018).

All my chosen sources contribute to my chosen topic and the current “conversation” in

various ways. Each source takes a different angle or approach and every source with overall

benefit my own research findings and point me in the right direction to find answers. Some

sources may be stronger and provide more useful answers, but all sources are very important

when it comes to my topic: “The Impact of Fame on Sports Performance.”

METHODS

In order to discover the answers to my particular research questions my research

procedure for this study consisted of utilizing the University of Central Florida’s library database
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to find various articles that are credible and relevant that I can deeply analyze to help support my

findings. I also researched two well-known professional athletes who have been open about how

fame and social media have affected their athletic performance to also help support my findings.

RESULTS

While conducting my study I wanted to find the answers to these three questions:

1. Can media improve sports performance?

2. Can media worsen sports performance?

3. Can an athlete's “fame” and social media presence ruin their mental health?

After further research, I discovered the answer to these questions. Some athletes

described social media in a positive way. They described social media as a platform that allows

them to communicate, escape from stress, and motivate themselves. Other athletes described

social media as a huge distraction, a place for vulnerability, and caused interrupted sleep

(Brougham, 2021).

Figure 1: Alisar Hudimova, Ihor Popovych, Oleksandr Savchuk study results (Gruettner

et al., 2020).

Furthermore, athletes who spend time on social media can have both positive and

negative consequences. According to the data that was collected in this study, athletes commonly
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use social media for more than four hours a day, which can have a negative impact on their

physical activity and health in general (Gruettner et al., 2020).

Figure 2: Tweet from Michael Phelps discussing mental health.

Michael Phelps, a well-known competitive swimmer, is just one of the many athletes

who has come out and spoken about how all the media can become very overwhelming.

Unfortunately, Phelps fell into depression and substance abuse after his last Olympic games and

he explained how the media only made it worse. Phelps also explains how the media would drag

him through the dirt for every mistake he made. Since overcoming his mental health issues,

Phelps is now a huge advocate for mental health awareness in athletics (Mohan, 2022).

Figure 3: Simone Biles discusses the importance of her mental health.

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Simone Biles, a well-known gymnast, is another athlete who has come out and expressed

the importance of mental health awareness in sports. Biles explains that she felt an

overwhelming amount of pressure from everyone around her, especially the media. This pressure

that Bile felt really affected her mental health, which led her to pull herself from the Tokyo

Olympic games. This is just another example of an athlete who developed mental health issues

because of social media (Simone Biles and pressure).

Overall, social media can serve as both a positive and negative tool for athletes. Some

athletes say it betters their performance, while others explain that it worsened their performance

from all the stress and pressure. Social media can also be the main cause of why so many athletes

struggle with mental health and depression. This is why it’s important for the media to be

cautious about what they put out there. I think it’s also important for athletes to know that it's

okay to step away from social media, games, competitions, and training in order to get help and

focus on their mental health.

DISCUSSION

Figure 4: Arkansas football player Dorian Gerald receiving hate after a game.
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After thoroughly reading and analyzing my chosen sources, and researching two

well-known athletes, it is evident that media can have a significant impact on an athlete. Social

media can be a way for athletes to communicate with fans, and advocate their brands. While on

the other hand, social media can be the cause of stress, anxiety, and depression, and can be a

major distraction. Athletes not only have to worry about playing well but then also have to deal

with negative criticism about their sports performance which can really take a toll on one's

confidence and mental health. Because of this, many athletes are forced to take breaks from

media together just so they can prioritize their mental health and their sport. I think that this

shows that social media platforms should be more mindful when it comes to reporting about

athletes, that way social media can be a more positive place and not a cause for stress.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, my opinion still stands that it’s important to learn about how fame and

social media can impact an athlete's overall performance. Learning and discovering how social

media can impact athletes in many various ways is very interesting. It makes me wish that media

and news outlets would be more thoughtful about what they say and post. This study taught me

that social media can affect athletes' performance, affect their mental health, and affect their

overall confidence. While social media can be a way for athletes to advocate brand deals, and

connect to their fans, it also can be a huge distraction and the cause of stress and anxiety.

Athletes get thousands of comments a day, many negative, and having to read those really takes a

toll on one's mental health. I think that it’s important to spread kindness throughout the media to

avoid major issues like this.

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Works Cited

Brougham, Jessica K. The Impact of Social Media on the Mental Health of

Student-Athletes. 2021,

https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2356&context=etd.

Frisby, Cynthia M., and Wayne Wanta. “Media Hype and Its Influence on Athletic Performance.”

Advances in Journalism and Communication, Scientific Research Publishing, Inc, 1 Jan.

2018,

https://www.academia.edu/93514152/Media_Hype_and_Its_Influence_on_Athletic_Perfor

mance

Gruettner, A., Vitisvorakarn, M., Wambsganss, T., Rietsche, R., & Back, A. (2020). (PDF)

the new window to athletes' soul - what social media tells us ... Scholar Space .

Retrieved March 8, 2023, from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336903215_The_New_Window_to_Athle

tes'_Soul_-_What_Social_Media_Tells_Us_About_Athletes'_Performances

Hayes , M., Filo, K., Guerin, A., & Riot , C. (2020, February 16). An exploration of the

distractions inherent to social media use among athletes. Sport Management

Review. Retrieved March 8, 2023, from

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1441352319303675

Hudimova, Alisar, et al. “Research on the Relationship between Excessive Use of Social

Media and ...” Http://Ekhsuir.kspu.edu, 2021,

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357538541_Research_on_the_relationshi

p_between_excessive_use_of_social_media_and_young_athletes'_physical_activity

Mohan, V. (2022, August 29). "they dragged me through the dirt" - when Michael Phelps

accused the media of contributing to his mental health problems. Sports news.

Retrieved April 20, 2023, from

https://www.sportskeeda.com/swimming/when-michael-phelps-accused-media-cont

ributing-mental-health-problems

Simone Biles and pressure: Talking about mental health. Lee Health. (n.d.). Retrieved April

20, 2023, from

https://www.leehealth.org/health-and-wellness/healthy-news-blog/mental-health/si

mone-biles-and-pressure-talking-about-mental-health