Since we’re on the subject about attendance and other fans, here’s what Coach Pat Fitzgerald has to say at Big Ten media days: "The way a lot of younger people and younger fans intake is all through technology. You watch a concert and everybody’s holding their phone up. Listen! Watch! Take it in! Create a memory. They don’t go back and watch the videos. They just want to post it on their social media, which is pathetic because it creates a society of ‘Look at me! Isn’t my life great?’ Even though when they go home they’re like ‘I hate myself. I hate my life. Everything’s wrong.’ I think it’s a big cause. I think it’s the root cause."
I 100% agree he has a point and it goes way beyond football attendance. The advent of our phone addictions changes our behavior in ways we don’t even realize.
I think it's more the social media itself than the phones, although certainly the phones make it much easier to interact with social media (both viewing and taking/uploading pictures) than would be possible without.
There is increasingly strong evidence that social media can cause depression. People only show their "best life" on social media, so when you see all the people around you, you see only the best bits of their life while you live [like every person] with good days and bad days, highs and lows. If you don't recognize it, you start to think that everyone around you has exciting, amazing lives, 24/7, while your own life pales in comparison.
Of course, people then respond to those feelings by only posting their own "best life" moments on social media, perpetuating the cycle, because they're certainly not going to put their own low points up for everyone else to see.
I know I'm guilty of it. I only use Instagram (not FB), but obviously the only things I post on there are the positive events. But I didn't let seeing other peoples' "best lives" make me feel worse about mine, because I understand the dynamic at work.
