Social Media-The Gift & The Curse

Social media is a great tool; when used correctly. The key is-when used correctly. One of the great benefits when you are an artist or an athlete using social media is the ability to connect directly with your fan base. The down side to social media is when you post or tweet emotionally. Once your thoughts go live on the internet it is next to impossible to take those thoughts back. Rapper Future went on a Twitter tirade against the mother of his child, R&B singer, Ciara. His issue was child support and seeing his son. He took to Twitter and posted a few disparaging tweets about her. Click here to read the tweets. When I read the tweets my first thought was, “One day, Future’s son is going to read these tweets and see that his father called his mother the ‘b-word’. Does he want his child to see that ugly side of him?”. As if the situation could not get any worse, a source from Ciara’s camp responded to Future’s tweets. The response from her camp was also emotional. One part of the response reads as follows:

"Future has told her he hopes she fails in everything she does and that's just being evil…,"

While I can understand the desire to clear one’s name, if I was advising Ciara, I would have advised her camp not to respond to Future’s tweets. It did not look favorable for a man to speak about a woman, especially the mother of his child, in the manner that he did. I would have advised her to ignore him and handle anything that needed to be handled in child support court. The response from Ciara’s camp was also an emotional and unnecessary response that is only going to make matters worse. This conflict did not need to play out in the public. Years from now the child at the center of this conflict will be able to Google both of his parent’s names and read the ugliness for himself. Is that the legacy you want to leave behind?