There can be little doubt that the outpouring of support and emotion for Fabrice Muamba will be of great comfort to the player and his family in these difficult times, but it is also provided an interesting insight into the modern world.
Like many I was watching the game live on TV shocked at what I was seeing, but I had to go out later on in the evening, but was desperately keen to find the latest news on what was happening to the Bolton man.
So like millions and million of others I was logging on to Twitter to see what was going on. Fabrice Muamba was trending all around the world, people from all sorts of countries were passing on their good wishes, and desperately enquiring as to how he was.
This will, whether he likes it or not – and you suspect that he wont – this will make Fabrice some sort of celebrity as he completes his recovery, but it does show us the power of Social Networking.
The last time something like this happened in the UK was 2007 when Irish International Clive Clarke suffered a Cardiac Arrest while playing for Leicester against Forest in the Carling Cup. The fact that Clarke’s plight is nowhere near as well known as Muamba’s tells us two things. 1) it tells us that he wasn’t a Premier League player and (arguably more important) 2) it tells us how the world has changed in five years, and just how important Social Networks like Twitter and Facebook have become as a way to find out news and share information.
The Hashtag , a word that wouldn’t have even been known when Clarke suffered his illness (from which, thankfully, he recovered) “Pray For Muamba” which was used on Twitter seeped into our National conscience, and appeared on t-shirts of footballers around the world. It is still being used on the site to encourage people of all faiths, or indeed no faith at all, to send positivity.
But we saw the other side of Social Networking too a little later in the evening, as Liam Stacey achieved his fifteen minutes of infamy. Acts of stupidity that could now see him end up with a prison sentence. Everyone who was looking for info on Muamba would have seen the condemnation of his extremely offensive Tweets, and within minutes he was the internets most wanted man. Many people, including the broadcaster and former footballer Stan Collymore contacted the police, and on Sunday morning Sweeney was arrested. After initially trying to claim his account was hacked he admitted his offence in Court on Monday and could now end up behind bars.
It is only right that people pay for what they say in “Cyberspace” so we at Cheap5aside.com applaud the police for taking the action they have. However we also applaud the vast majority of people, whether they are football fans or not and regardless of they support, for their genuine caring attitude.
Football is occasionally a force for good and we cannot let idiots being offensive let us cloud that fact.
Everyone at Cheap5aside.com sends our good wishes for a full recovery to Fabrice Muamba and hope that his family have drawn strength from all the well wishes.
Like many I was watching the game live on TV shocked at what I was seeing, but I had to go out later on in the evening, but was desperately keen to find the latest news on what was happening to the Bolton man.
So like millions and million of others I was logging on to Twitter to see what was going on. Fabrice Muamba was trending all around the world, people from all sorts of countries were passing on their good wishes, and desperately enquiring as to how he was.
This will, whether he likes it or not – and you suspect that he wont – this will make Fabrice some sort of celebrity as he completes his recovery, but it does show us the power of Social Networking.
The last time something like this happened in the UK was 2007 when Irish International Clive Clarke suffered a Cardiac Arrest while playing for Leicester against Forest in the Carling Cup. The fact that Clarke’s plight is nowhere near as well known as Muamba’s tells us two things. 1) it tells us that he wasn’t a Premier League player and (arguably more important) 2) it tells us how the world has changed in five years, and just how important Social Networks like Twitter and Facebook have become as a way to find out news and share information.
The Hashtag , a word that wouldn’t have even been known when Clarke suffered his illness (from which, thankfully, he recovered) “Pray For Muamba” which was used on Twitter seeped into our National conscience, and appeared on t-shirts of footballers around the world. It is still being used on the site to encourage people of all faiths, or indeed no faith at all, to send positivity.
But we saw the other side of Social Networking too a little later in the evening, as Liam Stacey achieved his fifteen minutes of infamy. Acts of stupidity that could now see him end up with a prison sentence. Everyone who was looking for info on Muamba would have seen the condemnation of his extremely offensive Tweets, and within minutes he was the internets most wanted man. Many people, including the broadcaster and former footballer Stan Collymore contacted the police, and on Sunday morning Sweeney was arrested. After initially trying to claim his account was hacked he admitted his offence in Court on Monday and could now end up behind bars.
It is only right that people pay for what they say in “Cyberspace” so we at Cheap5aside.com applaud the police for taking the action they have. However we also applaud the vast majority of people, whether they are football fans or not and regardless of they support, for their genuine caring attitude.
Football is occasionally a force for good and we cannot let idiots being offensive let us cloud that fact.
Everyone at Cheap5aside.com sends our good wishes for a full recovery to Fabrice Muamba and hope that his family have drawn strength from all the well wishes.
No comments:
Post a Comment