Zaida Puni says Tennessee softball limiting social media is 'one of the best things' they've done
Karen Weekly had two questions for her team after they watched "The Social Dilemma" in January.
The Tennessee softball coach has made the Lady Vols watch the documentary on the social and cultural impact of social media every year since it was released in 2020. This year, it inspired action from her players.
They came up with the idea of limiting their hours on social media, and they check in with sophomore pitcher Charli Orsini every Sunday night to fill out their hours on a spreadsheet for accountability.
"I asked them one question: 'Do you draw energy from social media?' " Weekly said Wednesday. "And they said, 'Heck no.' And I said, 'OK, then do we really want to spend 25-30 hours a week on it?' So I think it just made them look at things in a different way. But I'm proud of them for taking the action and then holding themselves and each other to a different standard."
No. 4 Tennessee (32-7, 12-3 SEC) opens a three-game series against No. 7 LSU (34-8, 10-8) on Friday (6 p.m., SEC Network) at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium. The Lady Vols haven't lost a series yet with three weekends left in the regular season and are in position to potentially win a second straight SEC regular-season championship. Tennessee made history last season when it won both the regular-season and tournament championships for the first time in program history.
Senior infielder Zaida Puni said the decision to limit social media was "probably one of the best things that we've done this season." The rankings and chatter all over social media was a distraction last season. Once the decision was made, everyone was on board. No one has gone over their hours all season, and the way the team bought in to the idea shows how beneficial being a player-led team is, Puni added.
They talk to each other more during team meals. They're not all glued to their phones in the locker rooms.
"Now that we've gotten so used to doing it for a couple months, it's not, 'Oh, let me grab my phone' now," Puni said. "We're just so locked into each other when we're here ... we're so together, we're talking to each other all the time. We don't take our phones out to the field ... our phones aren't in the dugout. We're rarely on our phones while we're on the bus."
Puni said it was an adjustment, because they're used to always being on their phones and scrolling social media.
"I was surprised with what it was going to do for us," Puni said. "And it's just showing that it's something that we needed as a team."
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The decision was made during two days of "pretty intense, grueling" leadership and team building, Weekly said. The team discussed in an exercise that in times of adversity, they need to turn to and rely on their teammates. So it sparked the second question from Weekly: Where do you draw energy?
The resounding answer was their teammates.
"Well, if we're not on social media as much, maybe we'll be spending more time with our teammates and developing deeper connections and deeper relationships," Weekly said, "because those are the people we need to go to when things get tough. So, I think we've definitely seen that."
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Tennessee softball decided to limit social media this season
