June 28th, 2010
OMG I love football so much I have to talk about it every second of my life
You know what is bemusing to me lately? Okay I’m using the term bemusing very loosely, it’s more like irritating but to prevent the potential out leash of fury I shall stick to a milder term. It’s the sudden surge of football-related updates on every single social network possible.
For one, I’m not against football. Heck, my own brother and boyfriend are hardcore football fanatics and they tend to form a union against me everytime I even dare to breathe anything anti-football. But I’ve observed something very intriguing lately, which is the fact that every Tom, Dick, Harry AND Jane will proclaim that they’re now, surprise surprise, football fans as well.
So I conducted my very own social experiment. Ok it’s not so much an experiment in its literal term because I didn’t conduct it, I just watch it happen right before my eyes. I counted the number of football-related rants on my Facebook newsfeed and observed a trend. This is it:
6 out of 10 of the football-related rants are by women
the other remaining 2 out of 10 are by men who probably don’t give a ratass about football prior to this
the final 2 out of 10 are probably diehard football fans, to give some credit to them
So what does this tell you? This tells you that they are merely putting up a show- a show that either portrays that person in a better light as a football fan (hence perhaps more attractive, more interesting, more up to date? who knows*) OR portrays her/him (more her, really) as a conformist. It’s more the latter for me.
Ok so all the girls who fit into who I was talking about are raising their fists in anger, claiming that they, too, REALLY like football.
Dude, if you’re really a big fan, you wouldn’t take your eyes off the screen after EVERY single event (wrong referee call, bad kick etc) to just go online and update your status. What is this if it isn’t merely a superficial show to others that you’re just as cool too?
I am already surrounded by worldcup-related news everywhere I go (radio, TV, billboard ads), I don’t need people spamming my newsfeed with their opinions on the worldcup really. An update on the score/game AFTER the game is fine, but ranting continuously, every single minute? Seriously?
Disclaimers:
1. I know there are others, my friends included, who update their statuses every second AND are actual football fans so don’t take it to heart cause it really isn’t about you.
2. Also, I know some of you are not football fans but are into watching worldcup because of the hype (myself included), this is not about you too unless you happen to update your status every few seconds.
3. This observation is based on MY Facebook newsfeed, hence may not be applicable to others
* the logic behind this puzzled me because if girls really think pretending that you know so much about football is attractive to other males and will somehow naikkan your saham wtf (I’m not saying this is why girls do that, just an assumption I draw from my observation), you might want to think again.
Applying game theory into this, if EVERY girl does the same, it loses its meaning and former intention. Ergo, now not only is it not cool to be a football fan, it annoys other people and might very well jatuhkan your saham instead wtf.
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yah seriously i get enough professional commentary from the tv or professional opinion in a recap/post mortem on soccernet or something, i don’t need to hear a numpty moan about his/her favorite team evah on my wall.
where were you during the regular season?
btw i claim half credit for the game theory idea cos we were talking about it wtf
lolz..so trueee!!
agreed with the entire post!
ever since FIFA started I can see many attention seeking girls regularly updating their status. and I was surprised because they don’t look like football fans! The only thing they like to do is actually shopping/putting makeup on (sorry but I’m not saying you. I like shopping too). Really bemusing lol
i agree! it’s so annoying when these people don’t know shit about football in the first place!
ok la to play devil’s advocate:
the thing about world sports events like the olympics and the world cup is that they everyone is included just so long as they have a television or read the newspaper. whether or not these people even care about football or long jump, it doesnt matter, because you’re not excluded as long as u make the small effort of asking ‘whats going on?’. i’ve always thought of music and sports as concepts that bring people together on a very primitive level- you dont need to look the same or speak the same language to play the same sport or listen to music or root for a team. so i think the simplest argument i can present in defense of the annoying people who tweet every second, or girls who jump into the game despite no prior knowledge of football, is that everyone just wants to be part of something this big. or maybe just anything at all. so correctly you point out that people often take a conformist stance to things, but then – 1) we do this with regards to many things that bring us closer to our friends, and i’d argue that making an effort to be interested in the things your friends like is a good thing for the relationship; and 2) maybe it’s not such a bad thing to conform to something like the supporting of a feel-good international event that takes place every 4 yrs. call me naive but i think these things take us one step closer to semi-world peace, even if just a very very very small step. and if not semi-world peace, then at least some sort of tolerance within our communities, or an increased knowledge about other countries outside of our region.
so to address the thing which bothers u most, which is that people tweet or update social network statuses nonstop about things you can read about in news, i agree this can be annoying to people who dont care about football. i think at one point i wished there were some kind of filter for justin bieber tweets, ya even the anti-justin bieber ones because even seeing his name was very annoying to me. but thats the thing about social networks- i guess you cant stop people from tweeting about whats important to them, whether it’s football, their breakfast, their makeup, their bad day or justin stupid bieber. luckily facebook picks up on such things and allows u to temporarily unfollow status updates from people u dont want to hear from. twitter does the same with the unfollow feature albeit a lot more in-your-face to the offending status updater.
i dont know if the ‘tweeting every second while the game is on’ thing is a sign of poserism rather than a combination of two things: the attack of social media on people’s habits, and also the community feeling that is inseparable from watching football and most sports. think i saw some tweet today about how twitter has made everyone feel like they’re in some global living room watching the same game, and i quite agreed. kafka and i (well, just me) were reading twitter updates out loud to each other cos it was funny how it seemed “FUCK YOU REFEREE” was going to trend at some point during the england-germany game. in some ways it made me feel less lonely, cos back home i usually watch football games with lots of my friends in a big group, or with my football-loving family, who can get super loud during football games. so i think the blame for this annoying status update thing lies more with the fact that social media has become so ingrained in people’s lives with regards to updating their friends on what’s important to them, what their thoughts are, etc. if i fucking hate the referee, i want all my fucking friends to fucking know too wtf. quite nice also la when you see your angry tweet being RTed by all your friends
to respond to angelina about how some people dont know shit about football in the first place, firstly it’s hard to ascertain that. secondly even if you could determine that, what actually is the rationale behind the dissatisfaction? is it that real football fans dont like it when all these newbies suddenly encroach upon their fav sport just because some big event came up? i presume thats the case for the most part, but correct me if i’m wrong. i remember when MJ died, lots of fans were getting pissed that non-fans were mourning his death too. but that’s a bit selfish right? why not share the memorial, and likewise why not share the sport if you’re really that big a fan of the sport? and if it is the case that you’re a non-fan who gets disgruntled when fellow non-fans ‘pretend’ to like the sport, well i guess see preceding first few paragraphs.
ok lah suet li liew, esei dah siap. sorry for panjang lebarness, feeling a bit stressed from writing paper so have to write other things as a result
well said lah
yo mama, susah payah i typed an asslong reply then my battery kaput. anyway:
1. you’re right and i completely don’t disagree with the fact that football/world sports unify people. there’s no wrong in being comformists and i guess maybe the point of my post went a little off tangent but i really didnt mean to say being a sudden football fan is all that wrong, my problem with that is the need to announce it to everyone that u suddenly know so much about football. which brings me to point 2.
2. i think what i have a problem with is not people who watch football and get excited over it. but i think it’s hard to not misconstrue my post as anti-football i must admit. anyway at first i wanted to address this sudden explosion of social media and how overreliant some people are on them. eg: telling us you just had a bad dream and you’re gonna sleep again now seems a little weird cause really, you just wake up shivering from your dream and all you can think of is reaching for your phone to update your status?? but i didnt touch on that cause guarantee will step on more tails
3. you’re right, it applies to everything if it’s overdone.
4. i think it was tim who said the global living room thing, which i totally agreed with and thought was a good comparison. twitter didnt annoy me much cause i only followed ppl whose updates matter to me (and thank god these ppl dont spam with football-related rants every few secs) and i think im terribly annoyed by fb updates cause i dont know half of these ppl well enough to tolerate their spams. time to delete wtf
5. nothing to comment about the football part cause it really isn’t about football alone la.
with ALL that being said, when you wanna see me? we’re going genting next week you kambing anot?
what dates, mademoiselle? thinking of heading to kuching the wkend i’m back which is 9th – 11th july, but nothing set in stone. let me know!
amen to that!
I’m English so I get a free pass during World Cup season ok.
i am anti football! was until i had a bf recently who’s all about football.. not anti not but stilllllll not into it.. and falls asleep each time i watch..
i agree about most girls talking about it .. just for shows
wow so true! =D
well, that’s what social network for rite? is like watching the match together at the mamak stalls, just that it is now on the web? hahahaa. it gives people a chance to get closer with some of the frens that haven been keeping in touch for decades!
yes it might get irritating sometimes when your facebook wall got spammed by football updates, but i think that’s because everyone wants to be a part of something big? =/
as for girls. i find girls who watch football attractive! therefore saham naik!
. at least they know whats the current ‘big thing’. some girls doesn’t even bother to know anything about fifa! and i felt they were being slightly ignorant. 
just my 2 cents. cheers.
holy crap lsa panjangnya your paper on football wtf.
okay liewsuetli i will go ahead and assume i am in the final 2/10 wtf thank you very much.
‘ssokay lsl world cup sekali dalam 4 tahun sahaja and only for a couple more weeks. endure a bit and next time around you’d be 4 years older WTF.
that said, one of my friends who is a fellow hardcore fan told me when she was at a pub watching there were a whole bunch of england fangirls there who screamed everytime beckham was on the screen WTF i hate people like that! jatuh reputation of true fans!
now i’m going to scroll up and properly read su ann’s response hahahahahhaa.
lsa tldr
kehrol fuck I hate Beckham wtf was he even doing there fuck this shit.
suet screw football where are you in my life?
tiu lei! wtf
- Beckham fan wtf
since world cup started, i never even watch one fucking match. i watched ip man and jay and jolin dancing concert clip instead wtf. i can’t be bothered lah. i very cool hor. hahahahaha
hahahaha game theory!
suet you studied too much econ!!
agrees with you and su ann.
i think you’re making me stop updating football related statue updates on fb wtf. not that i used to update after every match, but somehow the jatuh saham part struck me wtf lol.
Hey Suet this entry is sooo true!And I don’t like girls who watch football just to please their boyfriends wtf.It’s okay if they really show some interests.But it’s not okay when they’re just trying to show to their boyfriends that they’re sooo into football by posting all those status updates and all.It’s not cool at all.ZZZ.
Between,I’ve always love your writing!=)
totally agree with you suet! just cause some girls don’t post status updates about the world cup doesn’t mean they aren’t into football. people who are reliant on status updates from girls to get a brief glimpse of their characters are the ignorant ones XD i don’t have a problem with status updates personally, but i do wonder, hmm, why have these girls never posted A THING during other matches BEFORE the world cup (probably AFTER too).
In a way, it’s nice seeing them all worked up over the same things hahaha. and if i miss a match, i can just refer to fb hahaha. i don’t need to ask my friends and research how it went coz fb tells me basically everything! so handy! lol. so it has its pros and cons.
Agree that people who update their fb status every second on how they feel about the game is just stupid! On my fb its mainly men who does that lol!
I think it’s probably slightly different here in England, it’s more a ‘nation’ thing rather than a boy vs girl thing? MOst girls who don’t really follow footie usually would get into it during world cup perhaps because of the hype as you mentioned, or just because of pride hey.
We had a massive festival here this weekend (Glastonbury Festival) and they had to find a massive section to show the England Germany Game as 80000 people turned up for that! I dont know why I told you that but hey.
xoxo Jay
You forgot one reason! Because the men are hot! Damn those horny bitches … (me included)
but those men play all year round! watch the regular season also lah
Meh but I agree with you.
And honestly these conformist people, who just watch football now and update to seem cool (we’re talking specifically about THESE group of people, so exclude others) are on a usual basis too stupid and ignorant to do any of the good that “the spirit of uniting people with sports/football” can bring. At least not in a place like Malaysia.
You know how some people go, “Oh by watching football I learn about this country that country…” or maybe somehow they learn more about South Africa and the situation there, something like that?
Well this BREED of people will not bear any of those enlightening fruits. There is nothing more to them than idiots who pretend to be interested in football just to look cool. That’s it. Full stop. Right there. Nothing more.
I’ve seen them, I know them, one of them’s my good friend. I can assure you she will not contribute in any way to world peace should the potential come along. She’s too non-reactive.
So … “at least some sort of tolerance within our communities, or an increased knowledge about other countries outside of our region.” … nope, not gonna happen with this breed of people.
I visit your blog off and on but have never left a comment before, here’s my first.
I’ll start with – hello =)
Re your entry:
I think it’s perfectly alright for someone who’s never shown an interest in a subject matter to start now or anytime in the future. Just cos they never did doesn’t mean they should never be allowed to right?
It’s also okay by me if they’re less than apathetic despite knowing very little about the subject matter. Just cos you know very little doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to an opinion or to show some empathy right?
What I find irritating however (and I think this is the fundamental niggle you’re trying to pen here) is when the interest shown is wholly for the purely superficial reason of drawing attention to themselves. Nobody likes an attention seeker, least of all one who tries to fan what must be dying embers of their own popularity without substance or sincerity. The only too prevalent example is of someone buying really expensive things simply because they think it will get them noticed. I have friends like that, I’m sure you do too.
Sadly, this “look at me, look at me” disease has now reared its ugly head in the form of world cup fever or the charade of it.
To draw to a close, I have no solution to offer.. only commiseration. I believe that because the root of the issue is a character flaw in these facebook fiends, the end of the world cup season will only put an end to the senseless facebook posts on it specifically but I dare say you will then find yourself subject to posts on the next hot chicken shit (hangat hangat tahi ayam!). Good luck!
ME ME ME I WAS ONE OF THOSE WHO SHOUTED EVERYTIME BECKHAM APPEARED ON SCREEN! shout and then one hand fluttered to my heart wtf
hahahaha this actually reminds me of someone’s twitter update which goes like ‘girls if a guy wants to fuck you u can think geylang is a team and he’d still want to fuck you but u can know all the substitutes and super super substitutes (or wtv la) and he still wouldnt want to fuck you HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAA
ok im shallow kthxbai
(im kambing back in mid august!)
but tzeeee his voiceeeee
agree entirely!
annoying how everyone – both guys n girls, talk bout football all the time and im always out of topic! grr..
aih there was this really dumb girl i worked with who said she liked football, then i made an offhand commentary that “some girls only watch footballs for guys”, and she quickly exclaimed “YA! Last time i watch is for my boyfriend one!” as though it was a good thing..
gosh..this is soooooo true!especially girls who actually doesnt like football but force themselves to like it just to get guys attention! OMG…i love u for bringing up this topic..
“Hahaha, that’s right japan and uruguay. That’s what u get for making it such a boring match to watch!”
case in point of dumb girls who know nothing about football trying to comment on it on facebook. japan was playing paraguay.
yeah barry and after watching that match I was reminded why I don’t watch sports anymore fuckjapanfuckfuckyoufuckinghell I cant believe after all that they didnt win ashsgdsahsg@&#&*#&*@#fuckinghellCIBAIS
I couldn’t be bothered to stay up to watch la. I never understand them. I watched one match only which is between Korea and forgot another team. Korea lost one la. T_T My sis came back from mamak and insisted on watching.
Was quite gan cheong la but then aiya, the next few matches I already forget what time what channel and all.
Only watch for the hot guys in it.
btw i saw a girl copy sum topic frm ur blog.http://www.reneetay.com/
totally agree with you… hahaha… =P
but somehow i dont think that if boys keep updating status about the game is annoying.
I just find that GIRLS who do that is annoying. -.-”
why suddenlyyyyyyyy so into football…
they’re seriously like….you know..lol
golly, i couldn’t have put it better myself. well said. i just dun understand these ppl……
WORD
this is so true!