Jake King

I was watching a piece on SportsCenter today about LeBron James and his controversial decision to join the Miami Heat in an attempt to form a super team. The show went into the business side of his decision and talked about how his self-advertising in the realm of his followers on Twitter and Facebook. The numbers have skyrocketed to the point where he has roughly 90,000 followers on Twitter and God knows how many friends on Facebook. LeBron isn't the only athlete who brings much attention to himself through the use of social networking. Other athletes like Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens of the NFL also use it as well and probably have just as many followers. Even famous actors, writers use it to their benefit as well. I used to think that these athletes were just stupid people who could never keep their mouths shut, but the piece on SportsCenter made me realize the real intentions behind all of it. These athletes end up profiting off of this because when they make news from their "tweets" and fb updates, they are also advertising for these social networking companies. It's a vicious cycle that keeps turning with more and more people becoming a part of these networks due to their favorite athletes' participation.
But my question is why so many people will join a network to follow people like a LeBron James. Because if it gives them the sense that they are "friends" in some way with these celebrities because they have the ability to know what they are up to every now and then, then it seems they need to realize that their participation is only for financial benefits on both the networks' and athletes' sides. It just amazes me to see how many people want to know what these people they have never even met are thinking at any given moment of their lives.