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Rant - Don't Be That Guy Who Tweets Things At Kids

I'm not going to name anyone but you're all out there and doing it doesn't make anything better.

By Gerald Tracy III
@BellyOfTheBeast

Whether you're an Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Alabama or Syracuse fan, I really don't care just don't do it.

You know what it is too. Don't lie. Sure, Twitter is a great place to grab news, interact with celebrities (if they interact back) or even follow some funny accounts. What it isn't a place for is that.

Tweeting Recruits

It's something that seems to be tweeted about every day. Someone always has a screenshot of an opposing fan saying something nasty to a child who just decommitted, usually with the caption "of course ___ school would have fans like this." Let's be real, all schools have those fans. OSU has them, we've all seen it. However, no matter how much we talk about it on social media it doesn't seem to get through a few peoples heads. It's like the you're vs. your argument. It's talked about so much, you'd think the world has caught on by now, but no, that's just not the case.

Here are some reasons not to Tweet at children that are being recruited by your old school.

They Don't Care

If you really do think they care what John class of '87 has to say about the campus being beautiful, they don't. Sure, there's some that will retweet you if they agree or maybe even hand out a favorite (like?) on Twitter if they're feeling nice. But unless you're a coach, media or someone trying to reach out to them about potential free money to go to school (which if you are, you better be a coach offering a scholarship) then stop. Have you ever gotten so many text messages at once or notifications from ESPN on some tennis match you don't care about that you just clear them, never to be seen again?

That's what it's like to be tweeted by people you don't know.

Illegal

Sure, you won't ever go to jail or receive a ticket for this. But it's technically against the NCAA rules. Of course, there's too much of it happening and too little of an infraction to go after every single guy on Twitter - but if we all just stop, there will be less people doing it, and maybe, just maybe, we'll see some kind of action.

They're Kids

Think about this one real quick. A majority of people doing this are in their 30-40s. Sure, there's a lot of outliers all around the age graph doing it, but a lot of these are parents of someone. If you're so much as thinking of Tweeting at a 17-year-old kid, ask yourself this "Do you want your kids talked to like this?"

Probably not. Kids make bad decisions, all the time. Sometimes that means they want to retract that decision (decomit) and choose another one. If these three reasons don't give you enough incentive not to send that tweet at Johnny Child on February 3 when he chooses your rival school, maybe this graph will.

If you're still going to send that Tweet, well then, go ahead I guess. I can't stop you. But don't think it's going to help them choose. If anything, it may sway them away.

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