When it comes to Twitter, I’m a late adopter. Colleagues have been using it for months and rave about it. I was always a bit sceptical. It seemed to be the domain of celebrities or media types documenting the minutiae of their day. Even at conferences where tweeting the proceedings now seems to be the norm, I found the ‘ooh I’m at such and such conference’ ‘ooh so am I’ neither gripping nor particularly accessible – even though I was assured such approaches were democratising.
But a number of friends persuaded me I had the wrong idea about Twitter, and that I really ought to give it a go before dismissing it. Not least because much of my work is around health education via distance learning and being able to use as many resources to aid that process is obviously important.
January seemed a good time to start. It’s symbolic (a new beginning), and traditionally a time when I blog about the year gone by and make predictions for the year ahead. So I had something to learn and something to share.
And as clichéd as it sounds, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed using Twitter. I received a warm welcome from colleagues already on it and found it simple to use, so I was quickly able to find and follow people whose work I admire. For me the ability to network and share ideas and resources is the main attraction, and once I was on Twitter while I realised that while there is a fair amount of chit chat, trivia and self promotion, there’s also a huge amount of generosity and good will. It is a natural home for activism (so long as you can access it).
I also noticed there’s far less of a hierarchy or divide on Twitter that you might find within blogging or mainstream media. Maybe I’ve been fortunate but it seems most people I’m following on Twitter are happy to talk to each other. The traditional barriers between researchers, practitioners, journalists and the like seem less pronounced and I’ve enjoyed some interesting exchanges as a result.
Despite my early sneers about it, Twitter isn’t just about self promotion, although if you want to promote your ideas, website, blog, publication or other venture then that’s welcomed. I’ve been made aware of some fantastic individuals, charities, organisations and initiatives in UK and globally because people have been willing to share the work they’re doing. (The best of the bunch I’ve been adding to my links).
As Twitter is fast moving and often very light hearted it is easy to get caught up in banter. One issue for those working in health, research or education is about your conduct. Ethical guidance such as discussing celebrities, commenting on case studies, being judgemental or speaking outside one’s areas still apply, but may be easily forgotten. One challenge I’ve encountered is how to negotiate the chat network with colleagues without losing sight of professional boundaries but also not being overly worthy. In particular that’s involved ongoing reflection about how to present ideas on sex/science that don’t seem judgemental or unsympathetic or too filthy (bearing in mind there’s also no age limits to the medium and people’s boundaries vary widely).
Many well known Twitterers describe all aspects of their personal life and for celebrities in particular this is part of the attraction. A few people I follow mix snippets of their personal life alongside their discussions about their work as medics or scientists, which I really enjoy reading. However I made a decision not to give too many insights into my life and that’s also an approach I’ve followed on the blog and my work within the mainstream media. My reason for this isn’t academic snobbishness, but is down to working in sex/relationships. Many ‘sexperts’ only describe the things they like or validate their advice through personal anecdotes. Journalists often want this ‘personal touch’ and I’ve always aimed to avoid it. After all there’s little point in my researching sex and synthesising evidence from thousands of people’s experiences only to then talk about my experiences of cystitis, having a baby, or worries over body image in the bedroom. So to avoid being drawn into more personal accounts I’ll be keeping things more about evidence, practice and banter (but that’s not to say occasional personal titbits won’t appear).
One key thing that has changed is my approach to blogging. As you may have noticed I’ve been doing it a bit less as the month has gone on. I’ve found the opportunity to post links and comments via Twitter very liberating as previously I’d have had to write a lengthy blog post giving a back plot and explanations. I can imagine if your livelihood is linked to your blog that going on to Twitter might well be problematic. People in such a situation need to consider how they’d balance this before starting to use both forms of communication, and anyone who works on open access/not for profit models (like me) need to reflect on finding the time to balance talking on Twitter and sharing ideas on your blog.
One casualty of the shift to Twitter will be my ‘sex and science stuff’ – those occasional roundups of stories that had interested me. That’s now happening over on Twitter as and when I see things of interest that I want to share. It frees up the blog to become a place where bigger issues can be explored more in depth and I hope to focus more on critiquing research and offering advice in the blog.
Overall I think Twitter has a lot of potential. It’s already shown me it’s a place for sharing questions, starting debates, highlighting poor practice and networking. I’ve reconnected with folk I admire and made links with lots of other great people with shared goals and approaches to tackling issues around sex, relationships, media and public engagement (sometimes all at the same time).
I’ll continue to balance sharing information between this blog, website and Twitter (plus my other activities in the media), but I can already see scope to do something I’d begun with this blog. Making research evidence more accessible. Journalists often don’t have the time/skills to access such research and the public often lack access privileges to find papers. My plan is to regularly share sex/relationships stories in academic journals to highlight the range of work in this area and hopefully help those working in the media (and healthcare) to see what evidence exists for them to apply in terms of education, treatment or entertainment.
My only slight worry is whether shifting some of the work I’ve been doing on to Twitter is excluding anyone, so if this is the case please do let me know via email. Hopefully you can find a way to follow me #drpetra, and if you’d thought about Twitter but weren’t sure about it hopefully this might have given you some insight into the opportunities for networking, education and activism that it affords.
Reflections from a month on Twitter
When it comes to Twitter, I’m a late adopter. Colleagues have been using it for months and rave about it. I was always a bit sceptical. It seemed to be the domain of celebrities or media types documenting the minutiae of their day. Even at conferences where tweeting the proceedings now seems to be the norm, I found the ‘ooh I’m at such and such conference’ ‘ooh so am I’ neither gripping nor particularly accessible – even though I was assured such approaches were democratising.
But a number of friends persuaded me I had the wrong idea about Twitter, and that I really ought to give it a go before dismissing it. Not least because much of my work is around health education via distance learning and being able to use as many resources to aid that process is obviously important.
January seemed a good time to start. It’s symbolic (a new beginning), and traditionally a time when I blog about the year gone by and make predictions for the year ahead. So I had something to learn and something to share.
And as clichéd as it sounds, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed using Twitter. I received a warm welcome from colleagues already on it and found it simple to use, so I was quickly able to find and follow people whose work I admire. For me the ability to network and share ideas and resources is the main attraction, and once I was on Twitter while I realised that while there is a fair amount of chit chat, trivia and self promotion, there’s also a huge amount of generosity and good will. It is a natural home for activism (so long as you can access it).
I also noticed there’s far less of a hierarchy or divide on Twitter that you might find within blogging or mainstream media. Maybe I’ve been fortunate but it seems most people I’m following on Twitter are happy to talk to each other. The traditional barriers between researchers, practitioners, journalists and the like seem less pronounced and I’ve enjoyed some interesting exchanges as a result.
Despite my early sneers about it, Twitter isn’t just about self promotion, although if you want to promote your ideas, website, blog, publication or other venture then that’s welcomed. I’ve been made aware of some fantastic individuals, charities, organisations and initiatives in UK and globally because people have been willing to share the work they’re doing. (The best of the bunch I’ve been adding to my links).
As Twitter is fast moving and often very light hearted it is easy to get caught up in banter. One issue for those working in health, research or education is about your conduct. Ethical guidance such as discussing celebrities, commenting on case studies, being judgemental or speaking outside one’s areas still apply, but may be easily forgotten. One challenge I’ve encountered is how to negotiate the chat network with colleagues without losing sight of professional boundaries but also not being overly worthy. In particular that’s involved ongoing reflection about how to present ideas on sex/science that don’t seem judgemental or unsympathetic or too filthy (bearing in mind there’s also no age limits to the medium and people’s boundaries vary widely).
Many well known Twitterers describe all aspects of their personal life and for celebrities in particular this is part of the attraction. A few people I follow mix snippets of their personal life alongside their discussions about their work as medics or scientists, which I really enjoy reading. However I made a decision not to give too many insights into my life and that’s also an approach I’ve followed on the blog and my work within the mainstream media. My reason for this isn’t academic snobbishness, but is down to working in sex/relationships. Many ‘sexperts’ only describe the things they like or validate their advice through personal anecdotes. Journalists often want this ‘personal touch’ and I’ve always aimed to avoid it. After all there’s little point in my researching sex and synthesising evidence from thousands of people’s experiences only to then talk about my experiences of cystitis, having a baby, or worries over body image in the bedroom. So to avoid being drawn into more personal accounts I’ll be keeping things more about evidence, practice and banter (but that’s not to say occasional personal titbits won’t appear).
One key thing that has changed is my approach to blogging. As you may have noticed I’ve been doing it a bit less as the month has gone on. I’ve found the opportunity to post links and comments via Twitter very liberating as previously I’d have had to write a lengthy blog post giving a back plot and explanations. I can imagine if your livelihood is linked to your blog that going on to Twitter might well be problematic. People in such a situation need to consider how they’d balance this before starting to use both forms of communication, and anyone who works on open access/not for profit models (like me) need to reflect on finding the time to balance talking on Twitter and sharing ideas on your blog.
One casualty of the shift to Twitter will be my ‘sex and science stuff’ – those occasional roundups of stories that had interested me. That’s now happening over on Twitter as and when I see things of interest that I want to share. It frees up the blog to become a place where bigger issues can be explored more in depth and I hope to focus more on critiquing research and offering advice in the blog.
Overall I think Twitter has a lot of potential. It’s already shown me it’s a place for sharing questions, starting debates, highlighting poor practice and networking. I’ve reconnected with folk I admire and made links with lots of other great people with shared goals and approaches to tackling issues around sex, relationships, media and public engagement (sometimes all at the same time).
I’ll continue to balance sharing information between this blog, website and Twitter (plus my other activities in the media), but I can already see scope to do something I’d begun with this blog. Making research evidence more accessible. Journalists often don’t have the time/skills to access such research and the public often lack access privileges to find papers. My plan is to regularly share sex/relationships stories in academic journals to highlight the range of work in this area and hopefully help those working in the media (and healthcare) to see what evidence exists for them to apply in terms of education, treatment or entertainment.
My only slight worry is whether shifting some of the work I’ve been doing on to Twitter is excluding anyone, so if this is the case please do let me know via email. Hopefully you can find a way to follow me #drpetra, and if you’d thought about Twitter but weren’t sure about it hopefully this might have given you some insight into the opportunities for networking, education and activism that it affords.
Reflections from a month on TwitterRelated posts