Warriors coach Steve Kerr never realized giving up Twitter would be so easy
Who knew going cold turkey would be so easy?
Certainly not Steve Kerr, champion of the left and scourge of the right when it comes to social media — Twitter in particular.
Kerr hasn’t posted on Twitter since March 31, and in the days leading up to his final retweet he was posting links to articles including the need for infrastructure, gun control and other causes he deems important.
But @SteveKerr on Twitter has been dormant for nearly five months.
Kerr told Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area his newfound wisdom came after an agreement with the Warriors’ youngest player last season — rookie center James Wiseman.
“We were in a conversation about life in general and I asked him about social media,” Kerr said. “We started talking about it. I said, ‘What you say we take a break, we both take a break for a few weeks. Get off Twitter and anything else you’re on.’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’ I’ve been off ever since. And it’s been bliss.”
Wiseman, at @BigTicket_JW, has been relatively quiet as well.
Both Kerr and Wiseman are familiar with the slings and arrows that come with social media, Kerr because of his willingness to espouse his beliefs on social issues and Wiseman simply because he is a professional athlete.
“I think it’s never been harder to be a professional athlete or a person in the limelight,” Kerr said. “It’s like life is a big minefield now and we’re all human, we all make mistakes, but social media has made mistakes unforgivable and it’s just a terrible way to treat one another.”
Kerr isn’t any less interested in causes close to his heart. He’ll just find another way to speak out rather than the blender that is social media.
“Social media has really been destructive in a lot of ways, and divisive in our country,” Kerr said. “And so I found when I got off it, it was kind of a relief. The old saying, ‘ignorance is bliss’ is probably a little too harsh because you still want to know what’s going on. But staying away from all the B.S. and all the divisiveness and the rhetoric and the anger, it’s a much healthier way to live. So I have no plans to go back.”