Now I Know Why the Blue Bird Tweets

"Describe your week on Twitter."

It feels oddly bittersweet. Honestly, I've never really used Twitter for educational purposes. I've gone over my thoughts about social media when it comes to this in my Social Media Campaign and likely several of my blogs, but it still stands that I still haven't warmed up to it.

I can use Twitter just fine. Nothing about its interface absolutely offends me, but the realities of it does. I do know that the most fun I had using it were for moments I genuinely wanted to share and didn't feel obligated to so I don't risk watching my grades drop like the stock market right before the Great Depression. But enough with the bitter bits, right? I must be mixing up my salt and sugar these days.

I think one of the most amazing moments during the class was actually seeing Dr. Barbara J King respond to our hashtag and notice us students starting to sow the seeds of our research work. I didn't think someone as renowned as her would bother to bat an eye at us students. We students aren't famous scientists (yet? Who knows with this class?) and with some, are not even majors in strictly animal science / something biology related. It's easy to realize that without engagement, you're spewing hard work into the void of Twitter, but just because it goes unnoticed doesn't mean it's unimportant.

I think what Twitter does best is giving thousands upon thousands of windows into who's connected to who. Who's retweeting whose work? What paper did they just like? Why did they comment that about this? For research specifically, I don't think it's that effective. It feels more like a giant house of people saying ideas, but not every idea is concrete, complete, relevant, or even useful. But again, Twitter is the many windows of this chaotic house, and those windows let some light in and let people take a peek inside.

Will I use Twitter after 39C? Maybe. Personally, I've been trying to avoid social media, because it feels so mind numbing with society's dependence for digital validation. I've fallen victim to it too and since the start of the pandemic I have quit it until I feel more ready for it. I won't discredit Twitter as an immense platform, but it's not a platform I want to feel like I should always be standing on. But I'll keep it in mind.

Well, until next time and as the romance languages say:

Au revwell~