Why is Tennis Twitter (and other social media) like that??

! youtube.com/@tennisandbagelspodcast

The Sports Fan Experience calls for trash talking and lots of discussion. That doesn't have to turn into a war.

I love tennis. I love talking about tennis. I love having discussions with other fans about players who are great, players who could be better, things that I love about tennis, and things that annoy me.

I love the GOAT debate. How fun is it to compare stats, types of shots and game style, and have the evening extend into the late hours as we let our outrageous opinions on the table, call our friends idiots, then laugh it out and go home in peace?

But on social media...

Everything has to be different.

Fans love to throw insults at the first opportunity. Taking things we say out of context. Insulting our intelligence. Going as far as mocking our physical appearance, incessantly leaving mean comments in our replies.

Harassing players has become normal. Fans thinking they know better, that they can give priceless advice from the comfort of their homes thousands of miles away, watching tennis from a set tv angle that simply can't give you all the information you need to properly assess the game, even if you were a real professional tennis expert - which in the vast majority of cases we are not.

This podcast is not for players. They can get their information from highly trained personnel with years of experience and their inner circles of people they trust. My analysis and comments do not bring them any benefit.

This podcast is for fans. But I would truly love it if we could just be in love with this insane sport, have loads of fun, trash talk at each other respectfully, and keep a cool head over our shoulders knowing that there are millions of people around the world who are just are crazy about tennis as we are.

We can't all be friends and love each other. We have moments of anger and frustration. Sports is like that, I know it well. But we don't have to hate each other, or get aggressive online simply because someone has a different opinion than ourselves.

It's just a game, y'all. A game we love and are worse of without, but still a game. Let's love it well and respect each other and the players who give us all those great moments.

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