World Cup Mania: The Twitter Revolution

Think back to the times before the modern era and the Internet craze. When banter between sports fans was limited to a small geographic region, updates from games around the country, or even the world, were delivered through the television or radio. Now, during the exciting time of the 2010 World Cup, people around the world show their support of their countries and favorite players online through the means of social media outlets, especially Twitter.

Twitter has revolutionized the art of “trash talking” between fans, receiving game updates, and information on players and injuries, and following the infamous player/management struggles of the French and English teams. The World Cup has dominated Twitter so much so that it created a new section on their site for updates from the governing body, FIFA, and in game commentary from fans for every game. Twitter has globalized the World Cup bringing together fans from all countries showing their support. Trending topics were created for the World Cup to allow easier discussion among users on topics involving the World Cup. Additionally, Twitter has been  so overloaded with World Cup Tweeters that other users, myself included, experienced difficulty logging on.

Twitter has also improved player fan interactions. As JJ mentioned in his blog earlier this week, never before have fans had instant personal access to the players. Fans are able to follow their favorite players and teams and learn in depth details about injuries and problems within the team camp. Twitter has taken reporting the event to a personal level and made it easily accessible to everyone.