PhD, Associate Professor A.V. Komarova
Buryat State University, Ulan-Ude

Keywords: sport, cyberspace, internet addiction, selfie, cyber-socialization.

Introduction. These days we can no longer imagine any life sphere out of touch with cyberspace. Today we can find a great number of Internet resources directly or indirectly related to sports. Having typed the word "sports" in the second most popular search engine – Google, Russian version, we obtained nearly 4,740,000 results. Cyberspace and its opportunities are in demand in sports, and the problem of existence of sports activity subjects within cyberspace - virtual reality, where various sport websites, communities, chats, and forums are located, is quite relevant today. It is in cyberspace, not in one or another country, that a computer-mediated interaction of athletes from all over the world occurs.

Great opportunities for interaction open before Internet users: Internet helps implement social regulation mechanisms, opens the way for rendering or using various services, providing or retrieving information, etc. Often users communicate without filters, everyone can hold themselves out as they want.

Objective of the study was to make a comparative analysis of the cyber-involvement and internet addiction survey data for athletes versus non-sporting people.

Methods and structure of the study. Subject to the questionnaire survey under the study were 1399 people aged 18-35 years (25.32±2.55 years on average) including 568 athletes and 831 non-sporting respondents. The survey was performed using a special questionnaire form designed using the Google forms toolkit; with the form being distributed among the respondents via popular social networks and emails. We additionally applied A.V. Toncheva's Cyber-communication Addiction Questionnaire Survey, Kimberly Young Internet Addiction test and Cattel’s 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, with the survey data being processed by the Google forms tools.

Results and discussion. We found that athletes and non-sporting individuals prefer social networks to official websites (p<0.05). Online communities, where members post content themselves, are very popular among both athletes and fans. Sports websites, social media accounts are designed for interactive Internet communication, which enables its users to communicate across boundaries, post information, express their point of view. These social media accounts also serve as a means to promote sports. You can find groups of sports clubs and athletes, moreover such groups can be created without the direct participation of these athletes, as any supporter or fan can create and operate his/her idol’s account. However, that is not always a spontaneous process, very often similar websites or accounts are operated by Internet PR specialists thus forming a positive opinion about an athlete or organization, including political PR as well. It is an open secret that at the end of their sports career many famous athletes become deputies or start working as authorized representatives of high-profile politicians.

V.A. Vishnevsky, S.G. Sagadeeva, O.V. Vishnevsky note that moderate pastime on the Internet, when combined with physical activity, has a positive effect on the functional state of its users [2].

Having examined the level of cyber-communication addiction, we found that it was higher in non-athletes rather than in athletes: 45.16±0.55 points and 41.48±0.7 points, respectively (t=4.14, p<0.001). The share of people with the high level of addiction among non-athletes amounted to 35.3% (294 people), among athletes - 27.1% (154 people). χ2=10.29, p<0.01. It would seem that athletes are all business, however, one in four! interviewed athletes are still characterized by the high level of Internet addiction.

Moreover, we conducted a research on the phenomenon of selfieism, which to some extent is characterized by the signs of non-chemical dependency, like ludomania (gambling addiction) and shopaholism, and found that athletes with the high level of Internet addiction are prone to post selfies. What is more, especially popular among athletes are pictures demonstrating the beauty of their bodies, trim figures, photos with famous people, pictures from competitions and camps outside their home regions. By making a frequency analysis, we were able to spot in athletes of higher sports qualification a trend to post more selfies in social networks (Masters of Sport versus CMS and I Class athletes, who, in turn, upload photos more often than representatives of mass categories). The majority even use selfies as their avatars.

To a large extent, selfies are a sign of narcissism, and in rare cases this phenomenon becomes obsessional.

According to Cattel’s 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, athletes who often post selfies are characterized by the following personality structure features: openness (A+), dominance (E+), expressiveness (F+), inflated self-esteem (MD+). Even for many, the avatar is a selfie. The majority even uses selfies as their avatars. To a large extent, selfies are a sign of narcissism, and in rare cases this phenomenon becomes obsessional. These facts agree with the earlier studies [5].

The data on the subjects’ reaction to incitement on the Internet are particularly remarkable. 34.88% of the total sample parry rudeness (36.06% of athletes and 38.63% of non-athletes). However, only few are familiar with such notion as "trolling" - only 20.65% of the total sample (17.8% of athletes and 22.5% of non-athletes). Nowadays, users should be adequate when in cyberspace, be cyber-socialized, and aside from being able to use ICT, learn the generally accepted rules of behaviour, be able to resist incitement [4, 6]. Virtual reality is full of risks and temptations, it may contribute to creation of favourable conditions for emergence and development of various behavioural deviations, formation of destructive activity, both in cyberspace and in the real world.

When in virtual reality, people must control what they say, be vigilant, especially when dealing with strangers, show respect and tolerance to others.

Users, including strong-willed, courageous athletes, are vulnerable to crime and manipulation in virtual reality. There arises a delusion of anonymity, safety; negative pressure seems to be slight, and a computer desktop - reliable protection. Scammers deceive trustful youth, involve them into financial crimes. All the more so, there are even cases of involvement of Russian teenagers and youth in extremist activity and criminal groups: information technologies serve as a means of socialization, formation of ideology, behaviour patterns; criminals, scammers can position themselves on certain websites, social media accounts as they choose, for example, lend glamour to their activity, create exclusive groups for brave men. Girls may be trapped by good living, expensive clothes, jewelry. L.I. Kolesnikova notes that Internet users choose lying and play acting, holding their personal data in confidence, as one of the effective ways to protect against ill-wishers [4].

Cyberspace also turns into a "place" for athletes’ leisure activities, they like games and entertainment, take interest in news about sports and near-sports events, watch online broadcasts of sports competitions.

The questionnaire survey results showed that: 71.12% of the respondents (78.36% of athletes and 81.2% of non-sporting individuals) watch sport videos and take them in aggressively; 93.06% (95.24 of athletes and 91.57% of non-athletes) watch sports motivation videos, but only 22.87% of the respondents comment on the content.

71.5% of the total sample respondents use smartphone play-for-fun applications or play computer games. Sport games are mostly preferred by athletes (χ2 = 4.27, p<0.05). Additionally, cyberspace makes it possible to build a professional athlete's career; from summer 2016 onwards, computer sports (eSports) were officially introduced in the first part of the Russian Register of Sports, the titles of "Master of Sports of Russia", "Master of Sports of Russia of International Class" may be awarded.

Many athletes use special computer programs to analyze and plan their training process, for instance, PolarFlow, GarminConnect, where personal accounts can be coalesced into special sports networks, through which athletes share the data on the parameters of their training process.

Conclusion. Non-sporting individuals are more Internet addicted than athletes (p<0.05). However, one in four interviewed athletes is still characterized by the high rates of Internet addiction, plus, such athletes are prone to selfieism as well. Young people use social networks on a more frequent basis rather than other Internet resources, even when they want to learn news or retrieve relevant information. Cyberspace is a "place" for leisure activities. Athletes are also vulnerable to any crime committed on the Internet or using the Internet.

However, there is no need to close athletes off from the Internet, but a qualitative process of their cyber-socialization is required.

References

1. Boldakova I.A. Osnovnyie riski kibersotsializatsii molodezhi [The main risks of cyber-socialization of young people]. Concept, 2015, vol. 37, pp. 151–155.
2. Vishnevsky V.A., Sagadeeva S.G., Vishnevsky O.V. Povyshenie dvigatelnoy aktivnosti pri rabote v internete [Increase of Motor Activity at Virtual Work]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2013, no. 4, pp. 89-93.
3. Kalieva E.A., Khromin E.V., Korotkova E.A., Yakovlev A.S. PR kak element innovatsionnoy sistemy upravleniya fizicheskoy kulturoy i sportom na munitsipalnom urovne [Public relations as element of municipal physical culture and sports sector innovation management system]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no 12., pp. 3-5.
4. Kolesnikova L.I. K voprosu o riskovannom povedenii podrostkov v globalnoy seti (na materiale amerikanskikh issledovaniy [Risky behaviour of adolescents in global network (based on American research)]. Nauch. problemy gumanitar. issled., 2009, no. 14, pp. 40-45.
5. Komarova A.V., Boroeva J.O., Namsaraeva Y.N. Rol kiberprostranstva sotsialnykh setey v sovremennom sporte [Cyberspace of social networks in modern sports]. Vestnik Buryatskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2015, no. 13, pp. 83-86.
6. Pleshakov V.A., Ugolkov N.V. Internet kak faktor kibersotsializatsii molodezhi [Internet as a factor of cybersocialization of young people]. Vestnik Kostromskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. N.A. Nekrasova. Seriya: Pedagogika. Psikhologiya. Sotsialnaya rabota. Yuvenologiya. Sotsiokinetika, 2013, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 117-120.

Corresponding author: annet7782@mail.ru

Abstract

Modern cyberspace is known to cause a variety of indirect impacts on the modern sports development process since the worldwide web offers numerous content of direct or indirect relationship to sports. Internet environments are easily accessible, give a feeling of direct involvement in the major sport events and this is one of the reasons for the social networks being increasingly popular in the national athletic communities. Objective of the study was to make a comparative analysis of the cyber-involvement and internet addiction survey data for athletes versus non-sporting people. Subject to the questionnaire survey under the study were 1399 people aged 18-35 years (25.32±2.55 years on average) including 568 athletes and 831 non-sporting respondents. The survey was performed using a special questionnaire form designed using the Google forms toolkit; with the form being distributed among the respondents via popular social networks and emails. We additionally applied A.V. Toncheva's Cyber-communication Addiction Questionnaire Survey, Young Internet Addiction test and Cattel’s 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, with the survey data being processed by the Google forms tools.

The study found the following paradoxical fact: despite physical training and sport practices being widely recommended as effective internet-addiction prevention tools, every fourth athlete surveyed under the study was diagnosed with a high cyber-addiction. The study findings give the reasons to consider the cyber-socialization process inevitable and necessary.