It can be a very difficult space to find oneself in, letting multiple forever varying opinions seep into your mind. Which is why, former Test opener and Australia's contemporary head coach, Justin Langer, had a piece of simple advice for all young sportspersons, with great aspirations in life. That is to stay away from the social media as much as they can.
The advancement of various social networking sites has brought the fans closer to their idols. However, the flip side to it is that the naysayers have also been given a platform to vent out their frustrations. These are the people who operate with anonymous accounts as trolls and hurl constant abuse at players the day they happen to fail, which can take so much mental toll they don't even realise.
While coming out with honest measures to tackle such people is a responsibility of the owners of these sites, for players, the best idea in the meantime is to be away from the noise and not let the reaction to their success and failure become of more importance to them than it should be.
"If I could give any young player any advice, actually if I could give anyone any advice that is in the public eye, it is zero social media," said Langer during Charlie Webster's 'My Sporting Mind' podcast.
"I say that because I don't need any stranger telling me how good I am and, more importantly, I don't need strangers telling me how bad I am because I know if I am playing well, I know if I am playing poorly. I don't need strangers telling me that."
"What I do need is the people who I respect, my family and friends, they will let me know."
In a recent instance of social media cons, England's Barbados-born fast bowler Jofra Archer revealed he had been subject of racial abuse after his breach of the bio-secure bubble amid COVID-19 pandemic after the first Test against West Indies in July.
Langer's own wards were at the receiving end of bad words online while they were busy trying to win the World Cup and retain the Ashes last year.
"One of my pet hates in life is people pay their 20 quid or 20 bucks and they come and watch a sporting game and think they can say whatever they want," he said.
"They abuse people who are trying so hard out on the field and they say whatever they want and people say 'ah you need to have a sense of humour'. Are you kidding me?"
"Some of the things we were exposed to in England last year during the World Cup and Ashes, I cannot believe it. It was from parents who had their little kids next to them."
"It just doesn't make any sense to me. But 'oh well you get paid a lot of money so harden up?' Man, if people said that to my children I would be shattered and my players become my kids and you feel for them."
"It is part of what we choose to go in to and I get all that, but it is still common decency and courtesy and it is really lacking in our communities today," Langer added.
(Inputs from PTI)
