CAUTION: Social Media and Hockey Careers

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while.

A couple of weeks ago Jordan forwarded me some of links to a popular NHL hockey fan page and blog that were about a player's wife who had been using social media to air her feelings about the current organization her husband was playing for.  Both pages displayed the negative "tweets" she had put out there and basically called her out for being the reason her husband got traded.

I have mixed feelings about this whole ordeal.

On one hand I don't think the wife is solely to blame for her husband getting traded due to a couple of "tweets".  That would just be crazy.  Her husband is the one in the driver's seat and is the one who has "control" (I use that term loosely) over his career. 

On the other hand I'm sure the organization didn't want a negative image painted for themselves by a WAG who was using multiple social media outlets to discuss business.  Because thats what hockey is; a business. Like any other company, the hockey world frowns upon discussing business through social media.

I remember when I was first entering the work force a few years ago and the whole facebook privacy issue was at it's peak.  I remember thinking to myself "oh crap, I have to de-tag all of those college photos" that may have been less then appealing to companies who were looking to hire a young professional.  Same goes for college applicants and high profile (collegiate/professional) athletes.  They most definitely have to use catution and keep their photos private and/or monitor what they are being tagged in.

You may want to consider de-tagging if you have any pictures of you like this haha.



The fact of the matter is that the social media is HUGE with Facebook, Twitter, blogging, YouTube etc.  You really have to be careful what is being put on the Internet by you or about you because it has proven to effect more than just your personal life.

Now you may be thinking if you read my previous posts, "Hill you have talked about Jordan and Jokipojat openly...aren't you contradicting yourself?"  Well, yes I sort of am BUT I would never state my feelings about the organization as a whole or other players on the team.  When I have talked about this season the farthest I have gone was saying that it was "crappy", and that most of Jordan's contract was fulfilled.  Those are just facts. However, I did take Jordan sending me those links as a subconscious warning because he knows that I started this blog to discuss the hockey season and what was going on with us.

So with that said, I will be more careful in the future when discussing the current hockey season, BUT I will still use this space as an outlet  to share with other's my general feelings and experiences with it.  I know this is the reason why many other people tend to remain anonymous on blogs which makes sense, but I feel that in our current situation it is ok to share SOME personal information.

Have any of you readers ever experience any consequences due to use of social media?  Here is blog post I found discussing a NHL hockey player's tweeting and the lesson that should be learned from it.