Logging Off
Baker Mayfield says he's getting off social media, returns to social media three days later to repeat that he's getting off social media
Jason Miller
At some point, those of us who are terminally online have all said or thought the same thing - what if I just logged off for good? Wipe the slate clean. Quite literally, delete your account.
Easy to say, much harder to do.
This is the current plight of Cleveland Browns quarterback and former No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield, who, like any other 20-something living out their dream life, likes to post about it. It's a cool thing, to share some of that stuff with the fans, but the unfortunate reality is that just by posting at all, you're opening the door for the haters. It's become a social media cliche, but it's true - for every 10 positive comments, there is one negative one that stands out.
Despite not even playing this past weekend, Mayfield caught all sorts of social-media shrapnel in the wake of the epic Kansas City Chiefs-Buffalo Bills Divisional Round game. Apparently, a few people pointed out to Mayfield that he was neither Patrick Mahomes nor Josh Allen, which, to be fair, are two indisputable facts. Of course, Mayfield shouldn't have to deal with that stuff ever, but especially not when he's just chilling on the damn couch. So he made the executive decision to announce he was going to shut it down on social media for awhile:
Smart move. It's going to be a long, tough off-season for Mayfield, who is still recovering from surgery on his left shoulder and is expected to return to full health for the 2022 season. The last thing he needs to be doing while rehabbing is scrolling Twitter or Instagram.
Three days later, however, Mayfield succumbed, just like the rest of us would. You can tell yourself all the lies you want about being "done" with social media, and about how you want to live in the "present" and "enjoy real life" and "interact with humans" and all that other nonsense. Sooner or later, though, it will inevitably pull you back like it did on Wednesday with Mayfield, who re-announced that he was done with social media three days after he announced he was done with social media... on social media:
In fairness, this was a completely different platform. But where does it end? Three days from now, he'll announce it on Facebook. Three days later it'll be TikTok. If he wanted a true, clean break, Mayfield should have made it a scheduled announcement across all platforms. It's the only way.
For Baker's sake, we do truly hope the Instagram story announcement is the final one. That shoulder, and his ability to play quarterback, is not going to improve by wading into the replies on Twitter and Instagram. We'll check back in three days to see if he stays true to his word.