AP Photo/Gregory Bull
- Suni Lee suggested her disappointing bars performance was related to social media distractions.
- Research has linked social media use with poorer sleep, concentration, and outcomes in athletes.
- Social media can also benefit athletes, but some are taking time off to focus and avoid criticism.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
After winning gold in the gymnastics all-around Thursday – a medal presumed to be a shoe-in for Simone Biles before the superstar dropped out – Suni Lee's Instagram following shot up from 250,000 to over 1 million. The surge, TMZ declared could earn her "some SERIOUS endorsement money!"
It also may have cost her a gold in the uneven bars, the the 18-year-old from St. Paul, Minnesota, alluded after winning bronze for an imperfect routine Sunday. As Insider's Meredith Cash reported, Lee said she "got distracted" by the attention after her all-around win, vowing to take some time off the platforms to "cool down a little bit and just focus on what I need to."
While social media may seem a strange scapegoat for fumbled bar routine transition, research suggests it's a legitimate one – and that taking a "digital detox" could be an overlooked aspect of training.
Studies on athletes have found social media can impact performance and increase anxiety
One 2019 study looked at the tweets of 112 NBA players between 2009 and 2016 found that tweeting between 11 pm and 7 am was associated with poorer shooting accuracy, less time played, fewer points scored, and fewer rebounds the next day. Players who regularly took to Twitter at night were less affected than those with occasional late-night social binges.
Another 2017 study including almost 300 athletes of various levels found that 68.1% had used Facebook within two hours of competing, and that doing so was linked with great sports anxiety – and particularly, a disruption in concentration. The authors called that "somewhat alarming considering the importance of psychological preparation in sport."
Other research has shown how our increasisngly digital lifestyle has shoorted our attention span from 12 to eight seconds in over a decade. That's increasingly impacting young athletes who see psychologist Jim Taylor, he wrote for Psychology Today.
"Without the capacity for sustained focus, athletes will forget what they are working on technically or tactically during practice," he said. "As soon as athletes lose focus, they stop doing whatever they were working on and further ingrain old and bad skills and habits. And, without that extended focus, they won't be able to gain enough quality repetition necessary to effectively ingrain new skills and habits."
Social media can be a double-edged sword
Social media is where Simone Biles found a groundswell of support after her surprising exit, and sprinter Alyson Felix has demanded attention - and change - to the treatment of elite athlete mothers. The platforms let athletes tell their own stories.
But it exposes stars to criticism and hate. "There are definitely a lot of mean people out there who just say stuff that don't need to be said," Lee said after winning gold in all-around. She added she's "probably going to delete Twitter," where "it's just so easy to see everything."
Quitting isn't easy.
Social media is designed to be addictive, delivering quick and easy rewards with each new tweet or scroll through Instagram. Athletes, too, may need to keep up their public image through the platforms to earn or maintain sponsors. During the pandemic, Olympic athletes have valued social media as a way to connect with fans who are absent in the stands.
But if Lee takes time of Twitter, she won't be alone, Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus, who's won four medals in Tokyo, including two gold, said she deleted all social apps to avoid "external pressure," CNN reported. "I think it's good to be able to be off that when you're racing," she said. "It's just another thing that you don't have to worry about."