The Twitterization of the Academic Mind

Viewpoint Diversity
#1

One important reason why we are launching this forum is that Twitter and Facebook are not really suitable forums for scholarly debate, in particular not for sensitive and difficult topics.

In The Chronicle of Higher Education on 22nd March, 2019, by Gordon Fraser:

“I am concerned that our participation in Twitter is tacitly endorsing a commercial platform that subverts democratic discourse and collapses the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate forms of debate. Scholarship demands cultivated habits of mind, considered distance, and the unfolding of time. Twitter does not.”

#2

I totally agree with you.
On top of that, one of the problems I see for twitter is the use that people and organisation make of it. Some universities offer prizes for the academics that are the most active on twitter, this has increased the number of meaningless tweets a lot. Some use their account to post about their breakfast or the local weather and get interaction with others, hence more “points”. I find this type of posts dilute relevant information.
Twitter could be a great tool to communicate about interesting articles or conferences, but should not become a tool to assess scientific engagement.

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