In any household populated by teenagers these days, a disruption to the main water is normally met with a shrug of the shoulders. An intermittent Wi-Fi signal, however, tends to invoke a more animated response. Without access to social media, you could be forgiven for thinking Western civilisation is under threat.
A child of the new millennium, Ben Doak’s formative years were no different to any other. The habit of hopping between online platforms felt as natural as breathing or, in his case, leaving defenders for dead.
For the kid from Dalry, though, the joy derived from a daily dalliance with the online world would not prove to be boundless.
The toast of the red half of Merseyside after making his Liverpool debut against Derby two years ago, the former Celtic winger soon discovered that anonymous keyboard warriors are not always so fulsome in their praise.
Ben Doak relies on his fellow pros for feedback rather than social media
Doak, far left, with Scotland team-mates ahead of Nations League double header
The Middlesbrough loanee feels he has fitted in well with the Scotland squad
‘When I first started playing games for Liverpool, it was easy to fall into looking at social media and getting a bit too carried away,’ said the 18-year-old.
‘The first time I realised it was one game when I wasn’t great, I wasn’t good, I wasn’t bad. The first thing you do, you go straight on to social media, and you see everyone caning you. That was when I realised that these people aren’t your mates. They’ll big you up and then they’ll hit you down just as hard.’
His solution to this very modern issue suggests he has a wise head sitting on his young shoulders.
‘I just don’t look,’ he said. ‘It’s just easier, to be honest. It gets exhausting reading all the good and the bad.
‘What’s the point? The people who know what they’re talking about are in the building with me. If I want to hear any feedback, I’ll go to them. I won’t go to social media.’
Doak has quickly learned that seeking positive affirmations in a cesspit is a fool’s errand.
The opinions of his team-mates and managers are the only ones that count. And, to date, he only has gold stars in his jotter.
Jurgen Klopp said he had the X-Factor. Steve Clarke would have thrown him straight into the Euros had he not picked up an untimely injury. Michael Carrick, his manager while on loan at Middlesbrough this season, is a fully paid-up member of his fan club.
Klopp is no longer in the building, but the German’s first words of advice to the player have remained in his mind.
‘When I’m on the pitch, just go and have fun,’ recalled Doak. ‘Just go and enjoy yourself. I feel like that’s the easiest thing, the easiest way to play well. You can’t be thinking: “Oh, it’s this game, there’s a big crowd”. If you go out and you just have fun, you’ll naturally play well anyway.’
In an age when players are so often over-coached, Doak’s individualism catches the eye. With his pace off the mark, you half expect the grass beneath his feet to have scorch marks.
It said everything about his ability that Clarke, a manager not normally given to left-field decisions, planned to unleash him in Germany before fate intervened.
‘It was weird actually because I hadn’t played from December until May and I’d only just started training that week,’ Doak recalled.
‘I got the call up and I’m buzzing, I’m going to go away, I’m going to be training, I might make my debut at the Euros.’
The lack of game time which stemmed from a knee injury mid-season had left him vulnerable to the muscular issue which cost him his place. It made for a different summer than he’d envisaged.
‘I was watching it (the Germany v Scotland opener at the Euros) with my family in the house,’ he said.
‘I went out to watch the Hungary game with my mates and that ended up being a bit of a tough night. I think we all went home early.
‘(Going) back to being a supporter and thinking you could have been out there helping, that’s quite difficult, to be honest.
‘When I was watching it with all my mates, I just forgot that I was even picked for it in the first place. I just turned into that wee guy again who was watching Scotland when I was younger.’
In that difficult moment, he refused to let himself take future inclusion for granted.
‘I can’t just go: “I’ll get picked again, it’s fine”,’ he stated. ‘All I could think about was that I can set goals for myself.’
Doak had one of the best mentors ever at Liverpool in former Anfield boss Klopp
The youngster has also thanked Scotland boss Clarke for showing faith in him
Boro boss Michael Carrick is the latest manager to see huge potential in teenager Doak
It’s hard to imagine he’ll endure the same sense of angst again. He finally got there when he stepped off the bench against Poland last month.
He took pride in the achievement of winning his first cap but felt a certain emptiness at the outcome.
‘I came on at 2-1 down,’ he reflected. ‘All I was thinking about was trying to help us win the game. Obviously, that didn’t happen. We got it back to 2-2 each, and then there was the penalty in the last minute.
‘After the game, because we lost, it wasn’t that same great feeling you get. So, all I was really thinking was, right, next one, next one. And that’s the way I’ve been with everything.’
The great Robert Lewandowski played that night. Cristiano Ronaldo was lying in wait for Doak’s second cap in Lisbon. The young Scot has learned that such occurrences are all in a day’s work.
‘To be honest, it’s not even me,’ he said. ‘It’s my family going, like, you’ve just played against whoever, and I’m just like, yeah.’
Moments for reflection on such matters are rare and fleeting.
‘I feel like I’ve always gone through things in football dead quick,’ he stressed. ‘It’s always just the next thing and the next thing and the next thing.
‘Because if you spend too long dwelling on the good things that you’ve done, you’re just going to ruin the things that are going to come.’
Doak made five appearances for Liverpool in each of his first two seasons. He’s already clocked up the same number of games at the Riverside. He checked into this Scotland camp with a momentum he’s not previously enjoyed.
‘The week before we came here, I played three games in seven days,’ he said. ‘I started all three of them and I think it’s the most football I’ve played in the last eight or nine months.
‘It’s tough on you physically but, considering I hadn’t done that before, I felt fine. I felt fit and I enjoyed every minute of it.
‘Obviously, you’ve got other 18-year-old lads that are playing every week, but everyone’s got their own journey. My games are starting now.’
The backdrop to his next one should be Zagreb’s Maksimir Stadium on Saturday.
Whatever transpires, the teenager with fire in his boots will no longer feel the need to impress the faceless online critics. These days, the ability to look himself in the mirror suffices.
I’ve got high standards for myself,’ he said. ‘But I’m not going to be obsessed by ideas of achieving things.
‘I feel like if I just go game by game, go out and enjoy it, go out and play well, I’ll get noticed doing it that way.’