Sheamus dalton

Everyone enjoys an innocent chirp. As long as it doesn’t include profanity or particularly heinous comments, a humorous, well-timed chirp never hurt anyone, right?

Over the weekend, I watched the men’s lacrosse team play Walsh University in an early season scrimmage. And yes, seemingly intrinsic to the nature of lacrosse and maybe even college athletics, there was some chirping to be heard from the COW students. “Number 24 can’t even read!” was one of my favorites because it was funny but also clearly erroneous. (For those of you who are unaware of what exactly chirping is, the UrbanDictionary.com defines chirping as “talking large amounts of [crap] towards…individuals” or, in this case, opposing teams.)

So, what is the harm? At nearly every athletic event I have attended in college, there has always been some form of chirping from the fans, or even players. I have been the target of opposition chirping before, and in most cases it has only made me play harder. Being called illiterate never bothered me anyway.

However, it is reasonable to assume that not everyone can maintain a tough skin to all chirps. Drunk college students are not always conscious of the line over which a chirp is no longer innocent. So, there must exist a clear distinction between a chirp and a blatant insult. I suppose that this distinction is what is most important in deciding whether to laugh or be offended.

But translate this argument to the tweets sent during the Olympic hockey competitions, and much of the innocence is void.

Both prior to and during the U.S. men’s and women’s hockey games against Canada in the past two weeks, Twitter was flooded with chirpy tweets from Americans and Canadians in support of their home country. Some were innocent. For example, a trending topic on Twitter quite humorously announced that the loser of the men’s United States-Canada game would take unfortunate claim to pop star Justin Bieber, quite an awful punishment, but also fair in regard to the magnitude of the game.

However, the majority were far less innocent. Attached to many tweets from Americans was the hash tag #F***Canada. Often it followed tweets like that of  @dillydiesel89 who tweeted, “I don’t even like hockey, but I’m on team #F***Canada.

This sort of tone oversteps innocent chirping all together and becomes simply scornful. From behind the safety of a computer screen, many tweets like @dillydiesel89’s were drafted, filling Twitter with ignorance and profanity.

Personally, I make a concerted effort to leave profanity out of any tweets I post from my Twitter account. A Twitter account is a significant representation of its owner and I believe that disregarding this fact by posting inappropriate and heinous language is a huge personal disservice. As we all look toward our future careers, these are the considerations we need to make about what we choose to publish in a public forum. I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but I hate to see students limit themselves and contribute to the stereotypes placed around our generation’s use of social media.

I always try to avoid these sorts of issues, and just brush them off, but I feel that when chirping of this nature receives such public attention, it cannot be overlooked.

I hope everyone reconsiders their chirping game. Let’s keep it clean, lean and only a little mean. Go Scots.