It’s pretty common knowledge that losing sucks. Our team knows that and so do our fans, which is why all the support we have received both online and in person has been so great and amazing.
But after losing the gold medal game at the Women’s World Championships in Sapporo, Japan, on the weekend, I am left wondering why there are still those few people who sit behind the mask of their computers and insist on being rude, mean and downright hurtful to not only us, but anyone who lives in the public eye.
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It already hurts to lose. When you put so much time and effort into something and you literally come within an inch of grabbing it, it is sad and disappointing.
If you don’t follow curling or you missed that gold medal game, we didn’t play to our potential for the entire game. We know that. We don’t need people to rudely remind us of that. What we are proud of though is that we pulled together enough to force the Swiss skip to draw to the button for the win.
I understand, not everyone cares for our team and some may even cheer against us. But what I don’t believe other people understand is that their negative comments and offensive remarks can easily be read online by friends and family of our team and even our team itself. So while I love to read the support messages we get on our team Facebook page, Twitter feed and website emails, I am also disheartened by some of the comments.
Our team has been in the public eye for years now so it is something I have seen on and off. This is not new. But with our recent loss, the negativity has been brought to my attention again.
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We have all seen the evolution of social media over the years and the impact it has had both in a positive and negative way in many lives. We see stories in the news all the time about people becoming “Internet sensations” thanks to the likes of YouTube. But we also see the sad stories of young people who have been bullied online to the point where they feel worthless and shamed, and ultimately take their own lives.
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I have learned over the years to avoid reading those negative comments online. Unfortunately when reading all the messages of support, it’s hard to avoid the not-so-nice ones, such as the guy who commented that one of my teammates needed to fix something about her appearance, or the woman who said there were no good teams at the Olympics last year, which is why we won gold, and that the worlds field was why we won silver — even though half the teams were the same at both events!
Now my point with this is not to be woe-is-me. My point is to bring perspective to people out there who might think their comments are insignificant or don’t have much reach. Or to get people to ask themselves what their intention is with their action and statement.
Your comments online can reach far beyond what you think might be a simple statement of an opinion. And trust me when I say, I am all for having your own opinion and respecting the opinion of others.
But think about the example you are setting for younger generations who have to grow up with the extensive reach of social media. Think about your own kids or youth in your life and how affected you or they would be by negative comments made about them or their choices.
I have two rules in the online world – don’t write anything anywhere that I wouldn’t say to or in front of the person I’m writing about, and don’t write anything I wouldn’t say publicly. And the other rule is just what my mother taught me, and most mothers have taught for generations – if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all!
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