YOUR ONLINE ALGORITHMS are now the synthetic reality you desire.
This is why we start with the podcast Good Hang, hosted by American comedian Amy Poehler.
The bread trail of clips that dominate The Beat’s social media feed led to an episode with the actor Jon Hamm.
He tells the story of auditioning for the role of Don Draper in Mad Men, a show about advertising executives on Madison Avenue in Manhattan during the 1960s, which turned out to be one of the defining television works of the 21st century.
Hamm was at the final hurdle when he was flown to New York by the studio’s bosses. He still hadn’t been given any confirmation of getting the gig and even after going for drinks in a plush hotel, he was not told for certain what was happening.
Hamm then recalls squeezing into a lift with other guests and getting a nudge on the shoulder from a producer to confirm he will be Don Draper.
His life was about to change, and when the doors of the lift pinged open he got an immediate sense of just how much. The lobby was packed with paparazzi desperate for a snap. “But they’re all speaking German,” Hamm told Poehler.
And that is because the person behind them in the lift was German football icon Franz Beckenbauer. He politely brushed past Hamm, posed for some photos, and the future Don Draper was able to slink away into obscurity for one of the last times in his life.
So, there you have it: sometimes the social media algorithm can lead you somewhere pleasantly surprising instead of utterly depressing.
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Cork City highlighted the more sinister side yet again this week, when they released a statement on X, formerly Twitter, before Elon Musk took control.
The League of Ireland First Division leaders previously announced plans for a new jersey that would have rainbow colours as part of its design.
“The kit serves as a symbol of the club’s dedication to diversity, and aims to highlight Cork City FC’s commitment to inclusion for all in sport, while providing tangible support to Cork’s LGBTQ+ youth,” the club said.
That tangible support would come in the form of a minimum donation of €5,000 from the sale of the jerseys to the LGBTQ+ youth charity Belong To.
A string of what the club said were “intolerant and downright offensive” comments inundated the jersey post on X and, after assessing the situation, it was decided to cut ties with the platform as “we have a duty of care to our players, our staff, our supporters and the wider community.”
The rise of social media has been pivotal for clubs and players in trying to control the message that is put out. The problem is, you can never dictate what comes back at you.
It adds an element to the duty of care League of Ireland clubs now face, especially with children emerging from their academy systems. They require an element of guidance navigating their use of social media as part of that development.
This brings us back to the algorithm, and one club’s realisation about the extent of the impact some of the videos being forced onto their players’ feeds was having on kids barely into their teens.
One example is of a young player walking into his club’s training ground with his phone in his hand and the sound turned on. He was watching a video of a man assaulting another man, or as it was described to The Beat, “some fella getting the absolute shit kicked out of him.”
It was on the extreme end of the spectrum. The kid was rattled. He went to training distracted, and he wasn’t the only one; teammates saw the same video and because of the nature of the violence the conversation about the attack spread throughout the squad.
Some clubs will try to limit the usage of phones at training grounds to try and encourage interaction between teammates but also increase engagement and concentration levels.
League of Ireland clubs do not operate in a vacuum but are merely concentrated examples of what is happening in society. Academies are benefiting from gambling awareness workshops – a joint effort between PFA Ireland and Flutter – and visits will be made to more teams over the coming weeks.
These workshops are of no extra cost to the clubs, and the bottom line still determines what needs to be prioritised. Education around gambling, especially in its modern form, is also intrinsically linked to phone usage.
Another clear example of this is when another League of Ireland academy used part of its budget to pay for a physiology professor from a leading university to give a presentation to players and their parents about nutrition and other aspects that can have an effect on the body.
Clubs can only do so much, even within their own premises. A recent tournament abroad for one club also highlighted how priorities can change, with players having their phones confiscated from them 12 hours before a game. When they were returned the following day after the fixture, some of the first requests were for the photos that had been taken to post on social media.
That is certainly on the more innocent end of the scale compared to another growing and worrying trend of people – exclusively men – contacting players as young as 13 and 14 on social media, purporting to be football agents to try and forge a relationship.
It’s a form of grooming in the views of some.
It is illegal for any agent to contact a minor. A player cannot sign with an agent until they are 16, and the regulation insists you must make written contact with the players’ parents first.
Some key figures in the underage game in this country tell a version of the same story, of parents coming to them when their son has told them they’ve been contacted online by an “agent” offering to represent them.
The “agent” in question is often nothing more than what some have described as “runners”, people on the ground who attend games on behalf of the agent who, more often than not, will be based in the UK and at least be registered.
Regardless, there are additional qualifications required for a licensed agent to be allowed to represent underage players.
These “runners” will also turn up at games looking to make their pitch. In the old days, a scout from a club would be required to hold and provide their registered ID to verify they were working on behalf of who they said they were. At least one club had to ask one of these “runners” to leave their facility after attempting to approach a 14-year-old.
At least in that instance there was a safety net and the club in question could act quickly. It’s harder than ever to get that online, and it’s one of a number of battles League of Ireland clubs are now facing.
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Algorithms offer synthetic reality online as threats from social media come in different forms
YOUR ONLINE ALGORITHMS are now the synthetic reality you desire.
This is why we start with the podcast Good Hang, hosted by American comedian Amy Poehler.
The bread trail of clips that dominate The Beat’s social media feed led to an episode with the actor Jon Hamm.
He tells the story of auditioning for the role of Don Draper in Mad Men, a show about advertising executives on Madison Avenue in Manhattan during the 1960s, which turned out to be one of the defining television works of the 21st century.
Hamm was at the final hurdle when he was flown to New York by the studio’s bosses. He still hadn’t been given any confirmation of getting the gig and even after going for drinks in a plush hotel, he was not told for certain what was happening.
Hamm then recalls squeezing into a lift with other guests and getting a nudge on the shoulder from a producer to confirm he will be Don Draper.
His life was about to change, and when the doors of the lift pinged open he got an immediate sense of just how much. The lobby was packed with paparazzi desperate for a snap. “But they’re all speaking German,” Hamm told Poehler.
And that is because the person behind them in the lift was German football icon Franz Beckenbauer. He politely brushed past Hamm, posed for some photos, and the future Don Draper was able to slink away into obscurity for one of the last times in his life.
So, there you have it: sometimes the social media algorithm can lead you somewhere pleasantly surprising instead of utterly depressing.
Cork City highlighted the more sinister side yet again this week, when they released a statement on X, formerly Twitter, before Elon Musk took control.
The League of Ireland First Division leaders previously announced plans for a new jersey that would have rainbow colours as part of its design.
“The kit serves as a symbol of the club’s dedication to diversity, and aims to highlight Cork City FC’s commitment to inclusion for all in sport, while providing tangible support to Cork’s LGBTQ+ youth,” the club said.
That tangible support would come in the form of a minimum donation of €5,000 from the sale of the jerseys to the LGBTQ+ youth charity Belong To.
A string of what the club said were “intolerant and downright offensive” comments inundated the jersey post on X and, after assessing the situation, it was decided to cut ties with the platform as “we have a duty of care to our players, our staff, our supporters and the wider community.”
It adds an element to the duty of care League of Ireland clubs now face, especially with children emerging from their academy systems. They require an element of guidance navigating their use of social media as part of that development.
This brings us back to the algorithm, and one club’s realisation about the extent of the impact some of the videos being forced onto their players’ feeds was having on kids barely into their teens.
One example is of a young player walking into his club’s training ground with his phone in his hand and the sound turned on. He was watching a video of a man assaulting another man, or as it was described to The Beat, “some fella getting the absolute shit kicked out of him.”
It was on the extreme end of the spectrum. The kid was rattled. He went to training distracted, and he wasn’t the only one; teammates saw the same video and because of the nature of the violence the conversation about the attack spread throughout the squad.
Some clubs will try to limit the usage of phones at training grounds to try and encourage interaction between teammates but also increase engagement and concentration levels.
These workshops are of no extra cost to the clubs, and the bottom line still determines what needs to be prioritised. Education around gambling, especially in its modern form, is also intrinsically linked to phone usage.
Another clear example of this is when another League of Ireland academy used part of its budget to pay for a physiology professor from a leading university to give a presentation to players and their parents about nutrition and other aspects that can have an effect on the body.
Clubs can only do so much, even within their own premises. A recent tournament abroad for one club also highlighted how priorities can change, with players having their phones confiscated from them 12 hours before a game. When they were returned the following day after the fixture, some of the first requests were for the photos that had been taken to post on social media.
That is certainly on the more innocent end of the scale compared to another growing and worrying trend of people – exclusively men – contacting players as young as 13 and 14 on social media, purporting to be football agents to try and forge a relationship.
It’s a form of grooming in the views of some.
It is illegal for any agent to contact a minor. A player cannot sign with an agent until they are 16, and the regulation insists you must make written contact with the players’ parents first.
The “agent” in question is often nothing more than what some have described as “runners”, people on the ground who attend games on behalf of the agent who, more often than not, will be based in the UK and at least be registered.
Regardless, there are additional qualifications required for a licensed agent to be allowed to represent underage players.
These “runners” will also turn up at games looking to make their pitch. In the old days, a scout from a club would be required to hold and provide their registered ID to verify they were working on behalf of who they said they were. At least one club had to ask one of these “runners” to leave their facility after attempting to approach a 14-year-old.
At least in that instance there was a safety net and the club in question could act quickly. It’s harder than ever to get that online, and it’s one of a number of battles League of Ireland clubs are now facing.
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League of Ireland LGBTQ loi2026 Online Safety Soccer Social Media Cork City THE BEAT