Town striker James Norwood has been speaking about the fractious side of social media as a professional footballer.
Norwood has been a lively presence on Twitter and Instagram since he joined the Blues in the summer of 2019 and at his previous club Tranmere, most of it good-natured banter.
However, matters haven’t always been quite so convivial. Last week Norwood tweeted a photo of himself and group of team-mates when out for a meal in London and was vilified in some quarters as a result, while many other fans leapt to his defence. Players individually have come in for personal stick, Norwood among them.
The 30-year-old reflected on the way social media has become fractious during what’s been a frustrating season for all concerned at Town.
"It has done,” he said. "I think people are quick to judge. They see one per cent of someone’s life and then seem to know [them] better than the person or people that are close to that person.
"When things aren’t going well, people are the first to start rumours, they say this, they say that like it’s factually correct and they seem to know your life better than you.
"And then when things are good then they tweet you a week later saying how good you are.
"It’s a difficult place social media, I think you have to be very thick-skinned to be active on it. You guys [the media] will know yourselves when you tweet about the club and things like that, people disagree, people agree and it tends to be that however many agree, the two or three people that disagree are the problem. It’s a very fractious place.
"I like to be active on social media, I will show a little bit of my life, not all of it and people can judge me from that.
"But who would have thought I’d have captained the last two games, judging by my social media? People say this, this, this and this but they don’t see me day-to-day, they don’t see me when I get home.
"Personally I’m called fat, unfit, lazy, unprofessional and it just so happens I live with the top goalscorer in England [Cambridge United’s Paul Mullin] and he hasn’t had an injury and eats the same food as me for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
"You weigh it up both ends. It’s a fun place to be but I think you need to be thick-skinned.”
Are fans overcritical of players on social media? "People are entitled to their opinion, first and foremost. You can say what you want about the players when it comes to football, whether you know about football or not.
"I think the issue comes when people start talking about personal lives. I remember people were accusing Judgey [Alan Judge] of being a horrible person. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
"I think it needs to stop with personal issues and what have you, but people are entitled to their opinions about footballers. Fifty per cent of people will think we’re really good and 50 per cent will think we’re really bad and that’s part and parcel of the game.
"When you start getting personal with people that you don’t know personally, that’s when the problems exist.
"For me, it’s fair game. If people want to hammer you, I think people are fair game to be hammered back. If it’s about football, I’ve got no issue.
"If people want to come after me, I’d back the players here on social media. If you think you know someone personally you don’t. We spend every day with people here and if you come for people’s character, then as far as I’m concerned whether you’re top of the league or bottom of the league, you’re fair game.”