Academic Tweeting

[ab_grp]

Like most social media, though, I spend too much time worrying about whether what I'm about to contribute is important or written well enough (even here).  Any tips for how to get better about that and connect more?

Like with real world people, a good way to start connecting with people is to ask them for advice. I use my Twitter network regularly for technical questions, suggestions for references, and things like that. I have received lots of great suggestions - so many of us are siloed at our institutions where our research needs are so specific that we can't ask someone else in our department.

Sure, I have used my real life network to ask questions as well, but you can get some great crowd sourced answers and you aren't reliant on someone replying to e-mail promptly. If I want a quick answer on how to build something or a lab thing or if someone knows of a good R/LaTeX/whatever resource for something, then Twitter gives that to me and I get it from people who understand the context of my request.

There are enough well established scientists in my field who are on Twitter, so it isn't some backwater of useless academics or anything like that. Also, I got some free stuff from a company once when I tweeted about them. Bonus!

I meant to say thanks for this suggestion, and I find Twitter very useful for similar reasons.  I got a free stats book (maybe by retweeting? I can't even remember). 

But this thread came to mind today because I had been thinking about trying to dive in and say something on Twitter, but academic Twitter has been a complete sh!tstorm in the fields I follow lately.  Finally, today, I replied to a thread to suggest a correction to a sort of technical statement.  Of course, I thought about it and rethought about it, trying to make sure I was correct first.  But the thread author was very nice and thanked me, so I am glad I posted it.   I am encouraged to try further interaction.  I did actually tweet something the other day, but it was just a reply to a researcher I really admire regarding an update about her health.   Those are certainly less nerve-wracking.

[scamp]

Like most social media, though, I spend too much time worrying about whether what I'm about to contribute is important or written well enough (even here).  Any tips for how to get better about that and connect more?

Like with real world people, a good way to start connecting with people is to ask them for advice. I use my Twitter network regularly for technical questions, suggestions for references, and things like that. I have received lots of great suggestions - so many of us are siloed at our institutions where our research needs are so specific that we can't ask someone else in our department.

Sure, I have used my real life network to ask questions as well, but you can get some great crowd sourced answers and you aren't reliant on someone replying to e-mail promptly. If I want a quick answer on how to build something or a lab thing or if someone knows of a good R/LaTeX/whatever resource for something, then Twitter gives that to me and I get it from people who understand the context of my request.

There are enough well established scientists in my field who are on Twitter, so it isn't some backwater of useless academics or anything like that. Also, I got some free stuff from a company once when I tweeted about them. Bonus!

I meant to say thanks for this suggestion, and I find Twitter very useful for similar reasons.  I got a free stats book (maybe by retweeting? I can't even remember). 

But this thread came to mind today because I had been thinking about trying to dive in and say something on Twitter, but academic Twitter has been a complete sh!tstorm in the fields I follow lately.  Finally, today, I replied to a thread to suggest a correction to a sort of technical statement.  Of course, I thought about it and rethought about it, trying to make sure I was correct first.  But the thread author was very nice and thanked me, so I am glad I posted it.   I am encouraged to try further interaction.  I did actually tweet something the other day, but it was just a reply to a researcher I really admire regarding an update about her health.   Those are certainly less nerve-wracking.

It is natural to be afraid of saying something silly, but I think of Twitter like a party - sometimes I say stupid things when talking with people at a party, but unless it is absolutely ridiculous or offensive, no one remembers. Now if all you say is still stuff, then people might remember that :-)

[ab_grp]

It is natural to be afraid of saying something silly, but I think of Twitter like a party - sometimes I say stupid things when talking with people at a party, but unless it is absolutely ridiculous or offensive, no one remembers. Now if all you say is still stuff, then people might remember that :-)

I can definitely see that.  Sometimes it really does seem like a party, and I love a lot of the ways in which people interact, debate, and just have fun.  I guess I just feel like someone who has been looking through the window into a party, so no one knows me, and the last thing I want to do is jump in and be wrong.  This is a bad analogy, of course, because that would be creepy anyway.  Another issue is that I have followed some of these people for so long that I almost feel like I do know them (same for podcast hosts).  Maybe after they know me a bit better I can be looser with the gab.  It's funny because I am not a wallflower at all when it comes to debating (some may say arguing, at times) in person.  I have lots to say and lots of topics that interest me.  For some reason, social media just shuts me up in general.   Just being able to post silly stuff would be a lot easier, because I have plenty of that to contribute!

[downer]

One of the problems with Twitter is that all your tweets go down on your permanent record. People can dig up the silly things you said years after.

For the party analogy, I'd go with Snapchat. But I don't think there is any Academic Snapchatting, is there?

[craftyprof]

One of the problems with Twitter is that all your tweets go down on your permanent record. People can dig up the silly things you said years after.

For the party analogy, I'd go with Snapchat. But I don't think there is any Academic Snapchatting, is there?

I can't speak to Snapchat, but there are apps you can use to automatically delete all of your tweets after a certain period of time.

But I don't worry that much about it. Closeted bigots have to worry about their archives.  Hypocrisy is an issue for celebrities, but I'm not important enough for anyone to want to dig through everything I said 6 or 7 years ago.  If they did, they might find some typos, dated references and occasional mistakes but nothing scandalous.

But I'm also fortunate that I joined twitter as an adult with the idea that it was public.  I could see taking advantage of the deleting features if there was documentation of my youth potentially linked to my professional identity.

[larryc]

I am pretty active on Twitter, where there is a large community or publicly-engaged historians. I learn about new digital projects, follow links to book reviews, and read righteous Twitter threads where Kevin Kruse drags Dinesh D'Souza. Some of my conferences have active Twitter streams where the conference hashtag anchors a backchannel conversation that spills out past the sessions. And I use Twitter in my classes sometimes with a course hashtag. It is a useful tool--if you know how to use it.

[shrek]

Years ago, my students set up a lab facebook page and a twitter account. We were active on FB but not as much on twitter. It was fun and a little strange when people at conferences would mention my lab and things we were posting there. I'm starting to get into twitter, I am still learning but I tweet as my lab. Still, we have more followers on FB so far.

[pedanticromantic]

A well-known tool in my field has a Twitter account and clearly paid for a large number of Russian followers who retweet him... and nobody else. LMAO. We all know and laugh at the guy.  He frequently brings up his number of followers in arguments (Well, I have 25K Twitter followers, so I must be more important...type of thing)... as if we all couldn't fork out a few bucks to have that many.
Don't be that guy.

[Deacon_blues]

I used to be pretty active on Twitter, but lately I have disengaged because the fields that I follow seem to be devolving into cliques. Now I'd much rather keep in touch with my fields by reading journals. Twitter can be amusing and useful for networking, but much of what's written there should be taken with a large grain of salt.

[ab_grp]

The cliquishness and clashing within the fields that I follow seemed to have died down but do flare back up now and again.  There are clearly some big issues to deal with, but Twitter probably isn't the place for nuanced discussions about potentially explosive topics.  It also gets discouraging to see scientists post that if you follow [person] you should not follow them.

As far as followers, I am one of those who has X followers and follows 8X people.  So, I am clearly not much of an influencer.  However, I would like to report here that I recently posted another (reply) tweet and received 10X more likes than any of my previous posts or replies (while still under 50), so clearly I am improving.  If I ever get brave enough to post an original tweet (or, could I dare dream, a thread), I will feel accomplished (and probably get 0 likes or retweets, or may cause a war on Twitter).

In all seriousness, I do appreciate the prolific academic tweeters who spread so much information and connect many ideas and people.

[marshwiggle]

The cliquishness and clashing within the fields that I follow seemed to have died down but do flare back up now and again.  There are clearly some big issues to deal with, but Twitter probably isn't the place for nuanced discussions about potentially explosive topics.

HOF material, by any measure.

[newprofwife]

You can get fired for tweeting the wrong thing. Better to err on the safe side and say anything controversial offline (behind closed doors, not even text or email which can and will be used in a court of law).

[larryc]

A well-known tool in my field has a Twitter account and clearly paid for a large number of Russian followers who retweet him... and nobody else. LMAO. We all know and laugh at the guy.  He frequently brings up his number of followers in arguments (Well, I have 25K Twitter followers, so I must be more important...type of thing)... as if we all couldn't fork out a few bucks to have that many.
Don't be that guy.

https://www.twitteraudit.com/

[ab_grp]

I realize that this thread has not seen action in a bit, but I think that my question fits well here and does not deserve its own new topic.  I am wondering what forumites think about the following situation.  A working paper (that has presumably not been through peer review yet) was posted on Twitter by someone in the associated field (not the author).  A particular figure (bar chart) was highlighted that was intended to show disparities in such and such.  It looks to me as though there is a mistake in one part of the figure.  Let's say the paper looks at video game usage at ages 10 (part a of figure) and 15 (part b of figure), each of which are broken down by ethnicity.  To me, parts a and b look exactly alike (which would be unusual), and I think that the author may have inadvertently put the same figure in twice.  As I noted, the author did not post the paper and was not tagged but appears to be on Twitter.  Do you have any suggestions about contacting the author? This paper has the potential to be making the rounds quickly and widely, and I would like to give the author a heads up in case the figure is incorrect and can be changed before it goes too viral.  If I were the author, I would want someone to contact me about this, but I hesitate.  I am fairly shy about reaching out to people I don't know.  Plus, I could be wrong (though I still think it's okay to inquire about it in case it helps the author head off issues if the wrong figure circulates).  Do I email the author? DM the author on Twitter? Keep it to myself given that someone else will likely point it out on Twitter soon enough? What would forumites prefer? I would be interested in your thoughts on this type of situation in general.  Are you okay with being contacted by another professional through DMs? For what reasons yes or no?

[Katrina Gulliver]

I'd say nothing wrong with emailing the author (and this is why I'm wary of sharing drafts of articles before review....)