These kids can say an awful lot in 280 characters.
Area student-athletes have mastered the art of succinct sayings, and Tweet like their life savings depend on it.
Ironic, since they probably don’t even have life savings yet. But, I digress.
When I was growing up (I know the kids are already rolling their eyes) Myspace was all the rage. Remember Myspace? The white tee-donning Tom ensured that everyone had at least one friend, and that ridiculous kid from your chemistry showing off his “sick” rapping skills.
Then, Facebook became the soup of the day, until our parents got on it and ruined everything.
So now, these student-athletes tweet. And you know what? They represent themselves really well.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Twitter is a platform on which celebrities and normal folks alike post messages about their philosophies on life and political opinions, while interspersing humor and sports/entertainment commentary.
Here’s the catch: they only have 280 characters (letters, numbers, asterisks, etc.) to do it.
Some of these kids are hilarious. In his Twitter profile pic, Warsaw junior basketball player Jaylen Coon is seated at the hood of a gleaming white car with sunglasses on while nonchalantly checking his watch.
The smooth-as-silk image ties in seamlessly with his tagline, which reads: “You can catch flies with honey, but can catch more honeys being fly.”
I’ve never really been fly. I’ve eaten more than my fair share of honey graham crackers though, so there is that.
Others have mastered the art of self-deprecation. Wawasee senior Keyan Peete, who earned an All-Northern Lakes Conference honorable mention at linebacker this season, plays with an artificial left eye.
He “pinned” a tweet, so that it stays at the top of his feed, in which he said: “Why did it take me so long to find you? ... Oh yeah you were (probably) on my left side.”
Hey, if you can’t laugh at yourself...
Warsaw senior Abby Steffensmeier, who was strong defensively this season for the Lady Tiger soccer team, displays an intriguing duality in her tweets.
On the one hand, she has a knack for retweeting (sharing someone else’s tweet) very profound messages, such as: “God already has greatness planned for you in 2019. Don’t allow your history to interfere with your destiny. What you faced in 2018 was merely preparation for what’s coming in 2019. Don’t disqualify yourself. God has something up His sleeve.”
On the other hand, she shows funny relatability with tweets like “Does anyone else get nervous when they are about to hit submit order when online shopping? ‘Cause, same.”
Then of course, there are tweets about sports. Warsaw senior basketball player Maddie Ryman, who is one heck of a sharp shooter, showed her competitive fire with a retweet of “I hate losing more than I enjoy winning.”
I feel ya, kid.
I follow these student-athletes on Twitter, and some of them follow me back. It helps to build a following so that when I tweet links of Times-Union articles, they are more likely to read, like, and share them.
Yet, their youthful humor and occasional wisdom makes these interactions more than simply business-like. I feel that, with these kinds of youngsters, maybe our future is in good hands.
