Spoiled Olympic Brats? That's #SoSochi

Friday ushered in the official start of the 2014 Winter Olympics, but problems had begun long before that. Athletes arrived to unfinished hotels, thousands of stray dogs roamed the streets, news stories were released daily citing Russian corruption and its controversial stance on gay rights. Naturally social media exploded.

As of this writing, the Twitter account @SochiProblems has 339 thousand followers, over 100,000 more than the 31.6 thousand followers the official Olympics Twitter account, @2014Sochi, has.

Now I'm all for health standards and a safe place to stay, but honestly these Western reporters and athletes are taking things too far. The Olympics is supposed to be about the countries of the world coming together. It's supposed to promote tolerance and cultural understanding. Yet all I can hear about on the news or read about on social media sites are the problems, which aren't even that critical in the grand scheme of things. Globally 870 million went to bed hungry last night, if they even had a bed to go to. I'm supposed to empathize with an American athlete who had trouble picking out an ice cream from his menu because someone didn't perfectly translate Russian to English? Right.

For those complaining about the water situation, 783 million people do not have access to clean water. In fact, most Russians do not have access to tap water, let alone clean tap water.

It's time for us to be a little less ethnocentric, and a little more understanding. Russia is still viewed as a developing nation, so I'd hardly expect the level of luxury we have the privilege to experience as a developed nation. Does that mean this Olympics should be deemed a failure? No. If anything will deem this Olympics a failure, it will be the spoiled, self-centered athletes who care more about promoting problems through social media than taking advantage if their incredible opportunities.