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<h1 class="">How to Not be Boring on Academic Social Media</h1> <div class="">
<span class=""><a href="http://sasconfidential.com/2016/02/26/how-to-not-be-boring-on-academic-social-media/" rel="bookmark">February 26, 2016</a></span><span class=""><span class=""> / </span><span class=""><a class="" href="http://sasconfidential.com/author/sasconfidential/">SAS Confidential</a></span></span> </div>
<p><em>Author: <a href="https://twitter.com/TheLitCritGuy">@TheLitCritGuy</a></em><br>
<em>Original: <a href="http://thelitcritguy.com/2016/02/24/social-media-and-academics/">TheLitCritGuy.com</a></em></p></div><br><p>For many academics it may seem that the rise of social media is yet
another means of potential procrastination. Yet increasingly, certain
academics have turned to social media not just as a way of accessing
entertainment or as a tool for networking but as a means of engaging
audiences in a brand new way.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most famous and well-known is @NeinQuarterly, an
anonymous account that blends aphorisms, jokes and an expert level
knowledge of German literature and culture to produce a fascinating and
hugely popular account. Started by a former professor of German
literature, @NeinQuarterly’s unique aphoristic and satirical style now
appears in print in German and Dutch newspapers and last year saw the
publication of <em>Nein: A Manifesto, </em>a book collecting his finest
material that’s been published in multiple languages. On YouTube there
is aside from John and Hank Green’s famous ‘Crash Course,’
PhilosophyTube, an account started from nothing just a few years ago
that now has around 60,000 subscribers following their videos on Masters
level philosophy.</p>
<p>Personally, my own anonymous account started for far less
career-minded reasons. Having finished my Master’s degree and with a
twitter account that I didn’t really use, I decided to dedicate it to
talking about the thinkers and ideas that had intrigued me during
Masters study and provoked me into applying for a PhD. I decided to
cover literary theorists and critics who had been only briefly touched
upon during my undergraduate degree. However, after starting the account
I was convinced it would be largely ignored yet after tweeting to a few
more widely followed accounts it picked up a surprising number of
engaged and highly curious followers. Almost immediately, issues such as
a posting schedule, what to talk about, and even the limits of my own
knowledge became something that had to be dealt with. With a vocal and
supportive group of followers I was forced to honest about my own
limitations, my own inexperience, and allow myself to discover the
liberating freedom of telling followers that I don’t know; that I would
love to know more about something (something almost unthinkable in the
high pressure environment of PhD research). The pressures of normal life
meant that often the account became deeply personal as well as
something academic and this seemed to only further the connection
between me and the great groups of people who followed the account.</p>
<p>On top of this, anonymity comes with certain benefits that using
social media with a name and a face doesn’t carry. From behind the
“persona” of TheLitCritGuy my opinions don’t need to be run against what
my institution or its managers might deem to be acceptable. Anonymity
also allows the freedom for a kind of character to emerge. Behind
anonymity, anger at the conditions of higher education for ECRs and
students can be expressed more forcefully, and I also get to mash up
jokes with theory without worrying colleagues will take me less
seriously.</p>
<p>For academics who wish to take to social media and use it in a way
beyond networking or sharing cat videos there is no sure fire way of
doing things, but in the course of my own experiment there are a few
things that I’ve found to have worked.</p>
<p><strong>Firstly, have a distinctive voice</strong>. Anonymous
accounts do not necessarily have a name or a face, but they depend upon
having a distinctive perspective to offer. From Twitter the pseudonymous
accounts @EthicistForHire and @CrankyEthicist from the name alone,
immediately offers potential followers an insight into their account and
what they are like.</p>
<p><strong>Secondly, have a purpose.</strong> One of the most successful
anonymous accounts in #AcademicTwitter, @AcademicsSay posts collections
of jokes that connect really strongly with academics – jokes about
coffee, about being overworked and the ever present catchphrase that
‘you should be writing.’ These highly sharable posts always keep the
account highly focused and with a clear sense of purpose allowing it to
grow to being followed by hundreds of thousands of people.</p>
<p><strong>Thirdly, find your audience. </strong>Rather than just post
into the void, the best academic accounts use the tools of social media
to find an interested audience. Most notably, there are hashtags like
#twitterstorians, where historians post and organise their thoughts,
allowing an audience who want to engage with historians to find them. I
always try and organise my own posting under #TheoryTime, allowing
followers to keep up with what I’m talking about and catch up on topics
they may have missed.</p>
<p><strong>Fourth, expand.</strong> Whilst my own twitter account was
successful, I quickly encountered the limitations of the form. I decided
to expand my account into a research blog, as well as using the
platform I built on twitter to write on new websites, bringing
@TheLitCritGuy to a much wider audience.</p>
<p><strong>Finally, connect.</strong> Whilst people follow an account or
watch a YouTube channel to gain knowledge, using social media allows
for academia to become more personally relatable – rather than a
hierarchy of a teacher with students, twitter becomes a space of
conversation and mutual education. Whilst I try and keep the important
details of my life private from my account, a few personal details,
personal opinions, and replies to followers makes the account more
vibrant, more interesting and much more fun for those following.</p>
<p>It is this that makes anonymous accounts so effective too – outside
of the structures, rules and roles of university networking, the
anonymous account can become a place where academic researchers get to
connect directly with an audience. Impact becomes something more than
just a metric as people get to connect with academics beyond the realm
of university organised public engagement events. Furthermore, this use
of social media allows the public to see what life as an academic can be
like, in all of its good and bad points.</p>
<p>Behind the anonymity of a nameless, faceless account I’ve shared some
of the struggles of being an early career researcher, news about the
state of the wider UK HE environment and the sheer joy of teaching as
well as sharing and talking about my own research and intellectual
passions. Whilst anonymous accounts bring a certain degree of freedom,
there is the pressing awareness that my account won’t necessarily
benefit my career within the university system. However, as more
academics take to social media, using anonymous accounts allows for a
new kind of creative, flexible academic to emerge, more closely linked
with the public rather than embedded within the ivory towers of the
university system.</p>
<p>I’ve received countless tweets, Facebook messages, and emails from
people across the world, who, through various pressures felt they
couldn’t pursue their own passion for literature and theory – needing a
job, or dealing with their children they feel like they’ve missed out on
a swathe of knowledge and it’s a genuine privilege to answer the
questions and learn from them. Whether it be emailing economists about
Foucault or letting a nursing student know more about phenomenology
using social media has shown me that beyond the limits of the university
classroom, people are curious and searching for new ways to be engaged
and to learn. Social media can change how we teach and spread knowledge
beyond the limits of the university and through anonymity academics
might well find the freedom to connect with the public like never
before.</p><a href="http://sasconfidential.com/2016/02/26/how-to-not-be-boring-on-academic-social-media/">http://sasconfidential.com/2016/02/26/how-to-not-be-boring-on-academic-social-media/</a><br><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>carlos palombini, ph.d. (dunelm)<br>professor de musicologia ufmg<br>professor colaborador ppgm-unirio<br><a href="http://www.proibidao.org" target="_blank">www.proibidao.org</a><br><a href="http://goo.gl/KMV98I" target="_blank">ufmg.academia.edu/CarlosPalombini</a><br></div><div><a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Palombini2" target="_blank">www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Palombini2</a><br><a href="http://scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=YLmXN7AAAAAJ" target="_blank">scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=YLmXN7AAAAAJ</a><br></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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