I find it ridiculous that people can salivate and get so invested in where an 18 year old kid chooses to attend school and then get upset when the kid "wants attention" or "doesn't understand the meaning of commitment."
Back in your day nobody cared where you went to school outside of coaches and family and friends. Today ESPN is willing to come to your school to put you on national TV for a hat ceremony. People like us spent huge amount of time (and money) tracking every little detail trying to read the tea leaves on each kid.
I have absolutely no problem if a kid decides to tell the coaches privately that he is committed to their school but wants his 15 minutes of fame. for how hard these kids work they deserve to have their time in the sun. For the vast majority, it will be their only time really getting such a huge spotlight.
Another reason you would want to play it slow is go in to Twitter today and check out the comments some of these fans post on high school recruits tweets. These kids could post a song lyric and get ambushed by people asking if it has some cryptic meaning. Or he talking about some girl and these losers automatically decide he most be talking about their school.
What if, hypothetical, speaking we were recruiting a stud 5* Offensive Linemen from Cedar Rapids, IA. I would completely understand why he might want to be a silent commit so he doesn't have to hear kids and adults give him sideways remarks in the hallways all year.
Basically what I am trying to say is that silent commitments is just a product of the world of 24/7/365 recruiting. I don't think it has anything to do with kids "not having a dad like mine. Or "not understanding what the word commitment means."