Social Media Cuts Both Ways: Athletes Reveal the Hidden Costs and Rewards of Sport Content Online

Social media has become as much a part of an athlete’s daily routine as training sessions and physiotherapy appointments, yet the psychological consequences of scrolling through highlight reels, medal ceremonies and sponsored fitness posts remain poorly understood. A new qualitative study published in BMC Psychology by Tansu Kurtuldu, Ebubekir Livmercan, Ercan Polat and Samet Sağ of Yozgat Bozok University in Türkiye offers one of the most detailed portraits to date of how competitive athletes actually interpret, absorb and react to the sport-specific content that floods their feeds. Drawing on in-depth interviews with twenty athletes, the researchers found that the same platforms that fuel motivation and self-confidence can simultaneously trigger social comparison, performance pressure and feelings of inadequacy, a duality that the authors argue demands deliberate guidance from coaches and sporting organizations.

The research team adopted a phenomenological design, a qualitative approach specifically built to uncover the subjective meanings people attach to their lived experiences. Rather than measuring behavior through surveys or experiments, phenomenology asks participants to describe, in their own words, how they perceive and make sense of a phenomenon. In this case, the phenomenon was sport-related social media content: everything from training clips and technique breakdowns to victory posts and critical comment threads. The researchers reasoned that only by listening closely to athletes’ personal narratives could they capture the layered, sometimes contradictory ways digital content shapes athletic identity and performance.

Participation in the study was governed by strict criterion sampling. To be included, athletes had to be at least eighteen years old and to have competed for a minimum of two years, ensuring that every participant had accumulated enough competitive experience to reflect meaningfully on the role of social media in their sporting lives. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview form, a format that combines predetermined questions with the flexibility to probe deeper into unexpected themes as they emerged during conversation. The interviews were then subjected to thematic analysis, a systematic method in which researchers code the transcript data, cluster related codes into candidate themes, and refine those themes until they form a coherent framework that faithfully represents the participants’ accounts.

From this analytical process, six main themes crystallized: the psychological and emotional impact of sport content, the dual impact on athletic performance, a critical perspective on digital content, role modeling and identification, national and cultural belonging, and coping with negative comments. The structure of these themes is itself revealing. Rather than sorting athletes into neat categories of beneficiaries and victims of social media, the framework captures a single population holding both experiences at once, often within the same scrolling session. An athlete might watch a technique tutorial that sharpens her understanding of a movement pattern, then minutes later encounter a rival’s medal announcement that leaves her questioning her own worth.

On the supportive side of the ledger, participants reported that sport-specific content contributed directly to their motivation, self-confidence and technical learning. Training videos and expert commentary offered a form of informal education that complemented coaching, allowing athletes to study movement mechanics, tactics and preparation routines at their own pace. Content showcasing disciplined routines and comebacks served as a motivational resource, a digital reminder that progress is possible and that struggle is a normal part of athletic development. For many participants, seeing peers and elite performers share their journeys normalized the grind and reinforced their own commitment to improvement.

Role modeling and identification emerged as a particularly powerful mechanism. Athletes described following national and international competitors whose paths mirrored their own aspirations, using these figures as benchmarks for what dedication could achieve. Identification with successful athletes appeared to strengthen participants’ sense of what was attainable in their sport, providing templates for behavior, attitude and ambition. Related to this, posts by national athletes were perceived as reinforcing pride and cultural belonging, suggesting that sport content on social media does not operate merely at the individual psychological level but also feeds into collective identity, connecting personal athletic goals to a broader national and cultural narrative.

Yet the study’s most striking findings concern the darker currents running beneath these benefits. Posts featuring success, medals and peak performance were perceived as triggering social comparison, pressure and feelings of inadequacy in some athletes. This aligns with a well-documented psychological phenomenon: humans naturally evaluate themselves against visible standards, and social media presents an endless, curated stream of others’ best moments. For athletes, whose careers are already structured around ranking, timing and measurable performance, this comparison dynamic can be especially corrosive. A highlight reel compresses years of effort, failure and recovery into thirty seconds of triumph, and viewers who know this intellectually still feel its emotional sting when their own progress feels slower by comparison.

The athletes in the study were not passive consumers, however. A distinct theme captured their critical perspective on digital content, with participants actively questioning the authenticity, source and commercial purpose of what they encountered. They recognized that much of what appears in their feeds is shaped by sponsorship deals, algorithmic incentives and careful self-presentation rather than unfiltered reality. This critical media literacy appears to function as a protective factor, allowing athletes to discount content that might otherwise fuel unhealthy comparison. At the same time, the study identified coping with negative comments as its own challenge, indicating that exposure to criticism, trolling and hostile feedback remains a significant stressor that athletes must actively manage alongside their training loads.

The dual impact on performance ties these threads together. Participants perceived social media as having both supportive and challenging effects on their athletic experiences, meaning that the net effect on any given athlete likely depends on how the content is interpreted, how much of it is consumed, and what psychological resources the athlete brings to the encounter. Motivational content can sharpen focus before competition, while comparison-driven content can undermine confidence at precisely the moments when confidence matters most. The researchers’ conclusion emphasizes that conscious and critical social media use may support athletes’ development, but that achieving this kind of use is not automatic and requires guidance from coaches and sport organizations.

That recommendation carries practical weight. Sports organizations could incorporate digital literacy education into athlete development programs, teaching young competitors how curated feeds distort reality, how algorithms amplify emotionally charged content, and how to set boundaries around consumption during sensitive periods such as pre-competition phases or after poor results. Coaches, who already occupy a trusted advisory role, are well positioned to open conversations about the emotional weight of comparison and to normalize discussions of online criticism. The study, conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki with ethical approval from the Yozgat Bozok University Social and Human Sciences Ethics Committee and informed consent from all participants, received no specific grant from any funding agency. Its findings suggest that the question facing modern sport is no longer whether athletes should engage with social media, but how that engagement can be shaped so that its motivational power outweighs its psychological toll.

Subject of Research: Athletes' perceptions of sport-specific social media content and its impact on their athletic lives

Article Title: Athletes’ perceptions and experiences of sport-specific content on social media: a qualitative study

Article References: Kurtuldu, T., Livmercan, E., Polat, E., & Sağ, S. (2026). Athletes’ perceptions and experiences of sport-specific content on social media: a qualitative study. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05757-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05757-y

Keywords: social media, athletes, sport psychology, qualitative research, phenomenology, thematic analysis, social comparison, role modeling, digital content, athlete mental health, sports communication, coaching guidance