"There is a difference between heated conversation and actual toxic individuals."

In this day and age of social media, elite athletes just like pop culture personalities are subject to overwhelming love or hate on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other platforms. While the attention of thousands of followers can help an athlete get support from sponsors, social media can also get a little crazy and Hungary’s John-Henry Krueger has decided he didn’t need this roller coaster ride daily. 

By Carl Savard

Photo courtesy of the Hungarian Skating Federation

In a series of Tweet shared earlier this month, American born and Hungarian citizen John-Henry Krueger who won a medal for the USA in short track speed skating at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018 but moved to Hungary after that, shared his view about Twitter. 

“An answer for a question I get asked many times. Why do I have a locked Twitter account? Twitter can be a very powerful and useful tool for athletes/celebrities. However, I consider Twitter to be one of the most toxic social media platforms on the internet today.

Twitter allows anyone to shield themselves under a blanket of anonymity which I am totally fine with. Twitter is not the problem, human nature is. This anonymity and lack of human connection can really bring the worst out of people.

I want my Twitter page to be somewhat civil and enjoyable for everyone. No I am not some millennial snowflake wanting my own personal safe space. I welcome criticism and debate even if it get's heated.

But I do believe there is a difference between heated conversation and actual toxic individuals/subjects. What's toxic is subjective so no one will ever truly agree. I try to make sure everything on this page is enjoyable or somewhat relatable to everyone else.

We all know about trolls, bots, and spam pages. Those kinds of things aren't fun to me personally. So I personally approve every single person that wants to follow me. Luckily I'm not famous so it's not hard to do.

Say whatever you want. I will not ban you for criticising/disagreeing with me. I still have people on my Twitter who called me a traitor and disgrace for switching to Hungary. I have a pretty high tolerance for that stuff, it really doesn’t bother me. 

So to put an end to an already long thread. I enjoy a slightly controlled chaos when it comes to my own Twitter… enjoy."

When contacted to get more information about his views on the subject of social media in general, Krueger added: "Every social media platform has their own behavioral culture to it. Social media has changed how we perceive day to day communication." Something everyone using the different platforms should keep in mind. Day to day communication should always feel like it's people to people, not machine to machine.

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