Sports and Society

Sport and Society

Today’s world shapes the people that live within it. We conform to the ways of the world and it has more of an influence than we give it credit for. The 21st century has begun and taken over our lives. We fill up our time tinkering with technology and finding ways to make lives easier. Never before has electronics and media had such a huge effect in our lives. Almost everybody uses some sort of social media. From Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pintrest, LinkedIn, and even Myspace, we update the world with our lives. Social media has become a staple in our everyday lives and it can affect how we relate to society.

Sports have such a high impact on society, as does society on sports. They seem to be coherent with each other. For instance in baseball, society has labeled it bad to take steroids, unlike the 90’s where steroids were just part of the game. We are in what they call an offensive drought. In the 2000’s, pitching has dominated the game with names like Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez. Take for instance Barry Bonds who holds the record for most homers hit in a single season with 72. This record was accomplished during the steroid era as was Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa’s unforgettable 1998 season where the homerun race was on. Today established sluggers such as Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols, and Josh Hamilton struggle to get 40 homeruns in a season. 40 homeruns is quite a milestone in today’s game. Society has shaped the game to the way it is today by deciding to find what is acceptable and what is not.

Politicians tend to use sports as a way to relate to people. If you ask just about any individual they can tell you their favorite team and player. People relate to sports and tend to be relatively knowledgeable in the subject. This is a very valuable tool in the eyes of a politician to get the people to back them and get their vote on a basis of realization and relativeness. Society has deemed it to use...