The Darkside Of Social Media In Carp Fishing
It's not all 'love', 'haha' and 'wow' emojis... sometimes things can turn nasty, such as death threats and racial abuse...
How many times have you seen a friend or angler declare ‘I’m taking a break from social media for a while’? It’s increasingly common.
Being wedded to your phone, seeing the same content and same arguments swirl around time after time can grind you down. In fact, it becomes tediously predictable. You know that if someone posts a pic of a fish from Holme Fen or the Avenue that the comments section will be awash with opinions about legitimacy and heritage. You know that the latest Korda, Fox or Nash release will be peppered with comments about ‘catching more anglers than fish’ and other tiresome quips that the managers of these social-media pages must tally up like a prisoner chalking off his days inside.
As the online fishing community has matured - from the initial camaraderie and brotherhood of the early internet forums, through to the anonymous trolling era and, hopefully, out the other side - these comments become easier to dismiss, but sometimes fishing goes genuinely dark.
When Tom Doherty caught Big Rig at over 70lb from the Avenue, he received death threats and a barrage of online abuse for catching a fish some people viewed as unworthy.
Just let that sink in. A man who caught a fish - a fish he did not choose to pick up his bait - was threatened with his life because some people disliked the fish’s heritage. Imagine how mind-bendingly ridiculous that looks to anyone outside our hobby.
Having a negative view on Big Rig’s existence is absolutely fine, but just because social media has afforded you a platform on which to voice it doesn’t mean you should do it so irrationally.
Robust debate has always existed in fishing, and long may it continue, but it’s a lot easier to smell bulls*** or spot a knowing wink around a tackle-shop counter or in the pub. Online arguments tend to lack this non-verbal nuance and the temptation to go in all guns blazing has befallen almost all of us.
It’s perhaps understandable when the term ‘fishing’ has developed a second meaning.
If you’ve been part of the online angling ecosystem for a few years you’ll have an idea who these people are - the ones who like to get their bites on Facebook rather than at the lake. This deliberate provocation, which cruelly fools the new and the naďve for the sake of a sycophantic virtual audience, is a monumental waste of everyone’s time. Sadly, it’s all too common in venue groups on Facebook, where keen anglers come to ask genuine questions and are met with in-jokes and sneers from the class clowns.
But, hey, we can all sit here and moralise. The online fishing ‘community’ - if there is such an homogenised entity - just mirrors society’s relationship with social media and is generally pretty sound. If in doubt, remember: don’t be a d*ck.
The Negatrons
In the main, most of the comments left on our social posts are positive. However, there’s always a handful of ‘seasoned, know-it-all’ experts ready to tap their touchscreen keyboard with nothing but negativity. Here’s our top five most repetitive negative comments…
1. “Nothing new there…” (Us: We never claimed there was)
2. “I’ve been using this since XX.” (Us: Congratulations)
3. “Since when did he invent that?” (Us: He/we never claimed he did)
4. “The most expensive XX ever.” (Us: That maybe be very true)
5. “Running out of ideas now?” (Us: No)
