Scotty Cardle talks about punches being thrown online!
Ahead of his fight for the British Lightweight title on May 30th, we spoke to boxer Scotty Cardle about his online experiences and staying positive.
How would you describe your online life?
My ‘onlife life’ is pretty busy day to day as I am constantly using and updating my social handles daily to help increase exposure as a sports professional, as well as using the likes of Facebook and Twitter to connect with friends and family.
We know you use Twitter, do you think you’d ever quit it?
I know I could quit if I needed to, it’s certainly not an addiction for me, However, I am frequently using Twitter to interact with my fans as well as using it as a tool to keep up to date on the latest news and event in my profession.
Do you feel social media is a blessing or a curse?
I would say that social media is definitely a bit of both! It’s a blessing because it has allowed me to make some fantastic connections and helped build new relationships. However, it is also a curse due to the fact that social media is used to fuel racism, bullying and trolling. Some content I have seen contains bad language or gruesome videos that children could stumble across.
Have you experienced online abuse?
I’ve experienced some abuse in my online life, mainly from a few Twitter profiles sitting behind a fake name and profile. Lucky enough, I am very thick skinned and can handle it but I can understand a lot of people taking it quite personally resulting to certain extremes such as, self harming which is really upsetting to hear in todays media.
Can you tell us what happened when you were affected?
I can handle the odd bit of abuse and I will never react towards online abuse. I feel it’s a cry for attention of which I will not provide I have seen high profile personalities who have reacted online towards the abuse and I just feel there is no reward in that, the bigger thing to do is just ignore or report the abuse.
What would you suggest to those also affected in this way, and how they can resolve it?
Ignoring the abuse is the simple answer as there are a number of ways to block/delete people. If an individual is struggling with online abuse I would also encourage them to contact Cybersmile and chat to a professional well versed in how to deal with trolling etc.
What are your plans for the future?
My plans after my British Title fight on the 30th May at the O2 Arena is to succeed at as much as humanly possible as a professional in the sport of Boxing. Lifting the British Title at the end of the month will provide a fantastic platform for me to reach out to people across the UK and globally and help them get over certain issue such as online bullying and trolling.
Do you have a favourite positive quote?
“The best is yet to come!”
If you could choose 7-10 songs that make you feel happy what ones would you choose?!
Thanks Scotty – and good luck in Saturday’s fight!
What do you think of Scotty’s advice – is it best to ignore trolls looking for attention? Tweet us @CybersmileHQ and @ScottyCardle to have your say!
If you ever need help with cyberbullying and online abuse, there are lots of ways to contact us – visit the Total Access Support page for more information.