SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
NFL quarterback advises us to step away from social media
Dec 9, 2012, 7:29 PM | Updated: 9:17 pm
Following a murder and suicide involving his teammate, Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback Brady Quinn asks people to spend less time interacting through social media and more time in meaningful conversations. (AP file photo)
(AP file photo)
When you ask someone how they’re doing, do you really care what the answer is?
When you answer that question by saying “fine” do you mean it?
The quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs is asking people to examine how much time they spend on social networks, and evaluate how they can instead spend that time connecting with people in real life.
“We live in a society of social networks and Twitter pages and Facebook,” says Brady Quinn.
“That’s fine and stuff, but you know, we have contact with our work associates, our family, our friends and it seems like half the time we’re more preoccupied with our phone and other things going on instead of the actual relationships we have in front of us.”
Quinn’s comments came after teammate Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend last week. Belcher then committed suicide after thanking the Chiefs coaching staff for giving him a chance.
Many of us spend our days connecting through social media sites.
People in the U.S. spent 121 billion minutes on social media sites in July 2012 alone, according to Nielsen’s Social Media report for the third quarter. That’s over six hours staring into a screen or smartphone, instead of someone’s eyes.
“Hopefully, people can learn from this, and try to actually figure out if someone’s battling something deeper on the inside than what they may be revealing on a day-to-day basis,” says Quinn.
By LINDA THOMAS, I use social media less than you’d imagine
