How Social Media Is Shaping Football Discourse

The impact of social media on football discourse is undoubted, but what are the consequences of a culture drowning in the digital age?

With the newest instalment of Amazon’s ‘All or Nothing’ series, the latest edition honing in on Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, the reality of football in the social media age has again reared its spiteful head above the surface. 

Prime Video released the full trailer, offering a snippet of what is expected to be a dramatic season of television, with the trailer including former club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s dismissal from the role. 

However, a perilous venture into the comments of the video, and you quickly see the following tedious response - ‘Nothing’.

Social media introduced the lack of critical thinking, ploughing through discourse like a rampant tsunami wave, where soundbite responses with immediate engagement are the go-to mode of interaction. 

This rush, an engagement, irrespective of the response, is the discourse in and of itself. There is no longer an end-goal to an interaction, debate and engagement is about victory, a perceived victory to temporarily alleviate the ailments one faces elsewhere in the world.

In fact, this is true on a neurological level, as New York University professor Adam Alter argues:

“When someone likes an Instagram post, or any content that you share, it’s a little bit like taking a drug. As far as your brain is concerned, it’s a very similar experience.”

Therefore, when a response to the ‘All or Nothing’ trailer gets likes, despite being an uninformative, non-critically thought out take, the user is encouraged to do this again. The simplistic, dopamine producing response, is the response a user will take.

This is amplified in the phenomenon of ‘Football Twitter’, where accounts find themselves constantly duelling to one-up whoever they are interacting with. A tweet from three years ago about a manager or player is used to brand someone a hypocrite, and their opinions hollow.

The reality is, thoughts are complex, humans are complex. Opinions evolve and form when presented with new evidence, and it is far better to evolve and accept that upon new evidence you now believe x manager or y player is better than you initially believed. 

Not only has this grown to affect discourse surrounding players, managers and tactics, but also the realm of transfers.

A move in itself is no longer enough, an announcement is necessary, a core tenant of any transfer made. If an announcement video is poor, then why bother making the signing? The transfer is the spectacle. 

Gabriel Jesus’ move to the Gunners encapsulates this best. The move was all but confirmed, pictures leaked of the Brazilian wandering on the hallowed Emirates turf. Yet… no announcement.

An in-depth analysis of the move sees a complete centre-forward, capable of receiving the ball between the lines, running in behind, precisely linking play and pressing relentlessly narrowed down to the price tag and announcement. 

Perhaps, this was the logical outcome of football’s progression. The sport is an art, where 22 players spend 90 minutes working magic on canvas across the world. Times change, the world evolves. 

Art now transcends the pitch, the art is the life, to use Arteta’s line of questioning, is the beauty of football “in the journey or the destination?”

Whilst social media has nullified effective discourse, and football has become a spectacle, the genie is out the bottle, and good luck getting that menace back in any time soon.

A new dawn has risen in football, where the game is intrinsically linked to the digital world, which in terms is woven into the fibres of our being. Fans have always ‘lived the game’, shed tears of joy and heartbreak, let out screams of agony and ecstasy.

Simply now, the visceral nature of these emotions are accessible in every facet of the football ecosystem. Fans don’t just live, sleep and breathe the game, they are bound to all corners of the footballing world, the training, the transfers, the social media spectacle. The game has evolved beyond the white lines and delicately stitched ball. 

Time will tell whether the undoubted negative of crushed discourse can be mended, whether the diamond’s in the rough who pride themselves on informed debate rise above the smog of temporary gratification. 

Football has entered a new world, and as the launch of Arsenal’s ‘All or Nothing’ shows, that world is permanent. As for the long-term consequences? Only time will tell.