Jefferson Lerma has given his opinion on this weekend’s social media boycott and is hopeful that the initiative will lead to a greater respect between people online.
It comes into effect at 3pm this Friday, with the Cherries joining clubs across the Premier League, EFL, WSL and Women’s Championship in switching off their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
The boycott will remain in place until 11.59pm on Monday 3rd May, in response to the ongoing and sustained discriminatory abuse received online by players and many others connected to football.
Details of how we'll be covering all the Cherries news during the boycott can be read here.
Colombian international Lerma spoke with afcb.co.uk to give his thoughts on social media, starting with his thoughts on the weekend’s action.
He said: “Hopefully this will help. However, I think the issue is not just the poor use of social media, but also to do with the values that every person has. We have been fighting against racism for so long and racial abuse but it’s still happening habitually.
“The first thing should be for everyone to realise that everyone deserves respect. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone is responsible for their own actions. Hopefully this boycott will help but eventually it comes down to every person’s behaviour.
“I only use Twitter and Instagram, so I don’t use them much. Now I am paying a bit more attention to them because I have someone taking care of them for me, but before I did not pay a lot of attention to them.
“I even closed my accounts for a few months. I do open them daily, but I do not spend too much time on them.”
FACING ONLINE ABUSE HIMSELF
Over the course of the season, Lerma himself has received online abuse, with the 26-year-old talking about the notifications he has received.
“It depends on the moment," he said. “Winning or losing, I always get messages of support from my family, friends and Bournemouth fans.
“However, after the incident against Watford, I got very nasty messages. I don’t think you should wish anybody’s death regardless of what somebody did.
“I don’t make a big deal out of it though because everybody gives what they have. If somebody can say such things you can guess what’s inside their head.”
‘LIFE IS SHORT, SO WE NEED TO FOCUS ON OUR LOVED ONES’
With this weekend giving those inside and out of football squads the opportunity to reflect on their relationship with and usage of social media, Lerma gave his opinion on the platforms and the importance of life offline.
“Yes, I think social media is consuming us. We should give more importance to the people that are close to us rather than to social media.
“Life is short, so we need to focus on spending time with our loved ones and enjoy their company and not pay so much attention to social media.
“I think this pandemic has made us all reflect. We are now more aware than ever of how quickly life can change; we have lost loved ones before having time to tell them all we wanted, so we should learn from that and realise what’s really important.”
