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Twitter is a smorgasbord for journalists, with celebrity scandals, opinions and gossip revealed at the push of a button.
But if Olympic officials and sports reporters are too stringent on what is written, athletes may shy away from using the social media site.
Despite the negative press, Twitter is a godsend to the media.
Tweets from athletes remove the ‘red tape’ and bureaucracy of trying to get an interview with an athlete after their event.
The athlete’s perspective is paramount in adding credibility and reliability to a news story.
But even with the extra vantage point of information, a tweet by an Olympic athlete leaves them open to scrutiny and further questioning.
After the athlete comments about their performance on twitter, people begin to ask other questions like:
“Why is the athlete using Twitter while they are competing at the Olympic games? Is the social media site a distraction? Are they tweeting to athletes from different countries?”
Most of the social media scrutiny has surrounded the Australian swim team.
The opening days of Olympic competition have not been kind to the Aussies in the pool.
The most notable examples have been the disaster in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay and the shock silver medal to Emily Seebohm.
After finishing second in the 100m backstroke, Seebohm chose social media as a place to display her disappointment for not claiming gold.
Seebohm tweeted: “I don’t know what to say..I feel honoured to be holding a Silver medal but I’m disappointed that I couldn’t do better!.sorry for the wake up!”
Australia has been one of the strongest swimming nations in Olympic history.
These disappointing results have led me to believe the media and swimming officials are using social media as a smokescreen for Australia’s shortcomings in London.
Seebohm blamed Twitter for making her believe she would win gold before she had swam the final.
The Australian men’s relay team was also guilty of believing their own hype as they failed to place in their final.
But Twitter is not the enemy.
The technological dynamic is changing with social media sites Twitter and Facebook becoming the most powerful sources of global communication.
Emily Seebohm, 20, like most of the Olympians make up ‘Gen Y’.
Generation Y is notorious for socialising through Internet fads which continue to change over the years.
First their was MSN, then BEBO, Facebook and now Twitter.
The silver medallist has been tweeting throughout her Olympic experience and in turn has boosted her country’s support and patriotism.
The ability to rally the Australian people is a testament to her and the Olympic culture.
The most important thing to remember about Olympians is that they are human beings too.
Whether they are using social media or in the public domain, they deserve the same rights and respect like everyone else.
Yes, the Olympians are role models but a lot of them are still ‘kids’ in their own right.
An athlete’s tweet adds a dimension to sports journalistic landscape, which would be lost without social media.
So instead of criticising twitter we need to accept it for what it is: a powerful tool which gives us an insight into our heroes and their lives.