UPDATED: So, there I was one evening last week, checking out Facebook pages for and against Senate Bill 1164 and House Bill 1279.
Those are the bills, remember, that seek to toss the 93-year-old Florida High School Athletic Association in the shredder, loosen up the rules for high school athletes and make high school -- and even middle school -- campuses fertile ground for schoolboy free-agency.
Anyway, let me explain my experience with Facebook that night and the weird and wondrous morning after.
It involves FSU frat boys, bar bouncers and something akin to a United Nations, "We Are the World," hello?-I'm-a-long-way-from-Florida cast of hundreds. It asks more questions than it answers, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
OK. First thing I did that night was take a look at Parents for Fair Play. That was the FHSAA support page. Seemed straightforward, replete with parents' and students' comments. Defined itself as an organization that"informs parents, taxpayers, coaches and others concerned about issues impacting high school sports."
I was struck by the number of "Likes." On that evening 297 people had clicked that they "Like" Parents for Fair Play, or the spirit behind it.
Then I jumped over to the Facebook page forAccess for Student Athletes Coalition. Access exists to support the other side, the two bills sponsored by Sen.Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, and Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha. I wanted to find out a little more about a group of mostly charter-school and home-schooling parents who apparently feel so bullied by the Florida High School Athletic Association they think it needs to be chewed up and spit out in some new and better form.
I checked out the "Likes." There were something in the order of 127 of them. That's 127 for Access, as opposed to 297 for Parents.
Now, there's nothing particularly scientific about "Like" comparisons, but I think they have some value -- to give Floridians a general feel for the veracity of each argument, particularly in a campaign to win legislators' favor, when a hastily passed bill could irrevocably change high school sports in Florida.
So, imagine my surprise the next morning when I awoke, went back into Facebook for another look and found that the Access for Student Athletes Coalition now was posting 650 "Likes" on its page.
Overnight. From 127 to 650. Oh, my. Could Stargel's and Metz's bills have raised that kind of crowd in a single darkened night? I thought, I've got to meet these moonlight Facebookers.
So I took a closer look.
It seems the folks who are so deeply concerned with badly run Florida high school athletic events includeTshomo Om from the Royal Institute of Management, Thimphu;Kah Deux, a young man driving in Germany while drinking from what looks like a bottle of vodka;Justyna Blaszczyk in a train-station photo booth in Poland; prettyPhuong Blue, apparently on the grounds of Hanoi University of Business and Technology.
And tens of dozens more "Likes" like them.
Have a look for yourself at the sample photos of "Likers" below. Don't take my word.
I had no idea Florida's high school athletics programs were such a shared concern of young people in Asia, Eastern Europe, New Zealand, Canada, the Pacific Islands, good heavens -- all over the world.
Where did these people come from? I called Sarah Bascom, spokesperson for Access for Student Athletes Coalition, whose name I found on the website. It was Good Friday, we were not able to connect.
This "Small World" without the boat ride was a paid and put-up job. Phony as a $3 bill. I wanted to ask Sarah how much it costs to buy "Likes" in such a batch? International "Likes" at that. And where do you go to get them? Anything4aGreenCard.com? Sarah told me on Monday that she has no idea, her firm does not handle social media for the Coalition, and she would rather not disclose what firm does.
It didn't bother me to scroll through fraternity row at FSU, or check out the security guard at Potbelly's. It was just the skulduggery afoot, the dishonesty, the realization that on that morning I saw fewer than 150 "Like" people who live in Florida, let alone the United States.
It's funny, I had a good laugh. But then again, it makes me a little sick -- even if you tell me it happens all the time. And the folks at Facebook tell me it does. Apparently, Facebook has already weeded out many of Access for Student Athletes Coalition's "Likes."
I'm sitting here looking at these ill-conceived bills. I think they're a nightmare-in-the-making for the state of Florida. I'm already on record with that. Maybe this is just my opinion, but I think this issue is far too important for the state's 260,000 student athletes to allow cheating anywhere near the decision-making process.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
