The Why and the How Twitter Makes Sports so Much Better

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Jun 22, 2014; Manaus, Amazonas, BRAZIL; United States fans cheer a goal against Portugal during their 2014 World Cup game at Arena Amazonia. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

5. Bottom Line: It Unites Us

What’s best of all is Twitter allows us to unite…through a hashtag. Okay, I know as soon as the word hashtag is used everything sounds a little more…adolescent. But no one can deny that when a well implemented, well coordinated social media campaign (most likely created by an adult) catches fire, it has the power to bring together a huge fan base under one virtual flag.

There is no better example of this than the 2014 World Cup. Throughout the entire event, Twitter exploded. There really is no better word to capture the amount of tweets that contained news, reactions, photos, and discussions about this huge worldwide event.

While fans around the world gathered together as a community to watch their team play, they also pooled together as a virtual fanbase thanks to Twitter’s ingenious “hashflags.” Anytime you made a country’s abbreviation into a hashtag, the emoji of that country’s flag automatically popped up next to it.

But perhaps the most inspiring show of unity during the 2014 World Cup came from the one country that isn’t really into soccer. Yes, I’m talking about us, America. We are usually obsessed with our football, our baseball, and our basketball. But last summer, thanks to hashtags like #OneNationOneTeam and #IBelieveThatWeWillWin, our entire country suddenly became obsessed with our US men’s soccer team.

Goalie Tim Howard became a national hero, and forward Clint Dempsey captained not just the team but our spirit. Inspirational videos that cut together dramatic highlights of our win against Ghana went viral. Everyone knew what the Group of Death was. And a lot of this was made possible by the chants, the cheers, the encouragement, and the battle cries that all of us were able to make for our men’s soccer team on Twitter.

So thank you, Twitter. You’ve become such an ingrained part of society now that we sometimes hardly even notice that you’re there. But you give so much to the world of sports that we don’t even realize, and we love you for it.

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