Can Student Athletes Live Up to the Social Media Hype?

Most millennials are accustomed to the burden of constantly sharing their lives on social media, often feeling the need to promote an inflated version of their experiences.  For student athletes, who are already forced to constantly prove themselves before a crowd of spectators, social media platforms can add an overbearing additional pressure to their lives.

With a constant stream of altered content filling social media sites, it is actually impossible for a college student to truly live up to the hype of their online personas.  College students today are stuck in a pattern of heavily filtering the images they share on social media. They feel pressure to present an idealistic lifestyle, unintentionally supporting dangerous misconceptions.

Student athletes face added pressure as followers demand to be entertained. For some the pressure is too much, leaving some student athletes to leave social media altogether.

For others, the consequences of constantly perpetuating an ideal image can be much worse.

Student athletes can be taught to use their influence on campus as a vehicle to influence positive change, rather than becoming a victim or follower of the problem. So no, student athletes cannot live up to the hype, but they can become leaders who have the ability to make progress against a growing issue.