Yeah Brighton fans and other members of the cruel institution that is modern, digital society.
So footballers didn't have problems before this modern digital society? Were George Best's problems due to Brighton fans on social media too?
Aaron has said that he got to PL and believed that was it, he was a star and was going to rule the footballing world (poetic license) and that he no longer needed to work hard. Because of this, his performances dropped. Because his performances dropped, he turned to alcohol and didn't listen to the people around him. He didn't turn to alcohol because people were having a go at him. Have you even watched the video? He didn't look forward to football, he looked forward to going out and drinking.
This is not on fans.
That's not to say that a lot of social media isn't a cesspit. Yes, some of those people get a life, but many of them don't have one and aren't about to get one.
By February 2020, when Aaron was in his first year in the first team and had just turned 20, Connolly had received enough abuse from Brighton fans to remove all his Brighton pics from his own social medias. Thats what Brighton & Hove Albion fans did to a 20 year old guy.
You don't know what people gave him abuse. Some were probably just trolls and with no interest in our club.
And people of course don't want to take responsibility for creating the hideous social media climate - its always "someone else" doing the bullying and the bullshitting, so we say "Aaron needs to take individual responsibility" instead of saying "oh shit maybe we shouldn't do things like this."
By saying Brighton fans, and 'we' shouldn't be doing things like this, you're implying that I (and all other Brighton fans) am partly responsible for his problems. I'm not, and if you disagree, please find my posts that contributed to his problems. If you want to name and shame individuals for specific things they did you go ahead, but don't just start stereotyping people and blaming everyone.
Yes I am a substance abuser since 15 years and has spent thousands and thousands of hours in company with substance abusers. Many have tried to resolve the growing problem of substance abuse by telling us abusers to "cut your hair and get a job". Strangely this isn't working and more and more people fall into various sorts of abuse.
As long as people like you believe that its up to each individual to sort those problems, rather than changing society into something less depressive, less hopeless and less pressure-filled, the problems will grow and grow and grow until the day the entire society will deeply, deeply regret not dealing with it as a society and instead lumping over responsibility to the hundreds of millions of people who can't stand being sober in what the f*** you're building out there.
People like me? You don't know me, you have no idea of the stresses my family and I have had in our lives. I don't say that each individual needs to sort their own problems. In the specific case of Aaron, he's identified the main issue's he's had (no longer training hard so losing form, living the social life of a famous footballer, a family propensity towards addiction), and you're trying to pretend that he's wrong, and it's somehow my (and others like me) fault.
Yes it would be lovely if society was better, if we all looked out for each other more, if there were no wars etc, but that's more than a bit difficult to achieve.