4 ms·

As a scientist I have a strong aversion to getting on Twitter, and this article isn't helping. All my experience with Twitter has told me it's a concentrator fo

by knzhou 7y ago

As a scientist I have a strong aversion to getting on Twitter, and this article isn't helping. All my experience with Twitter has told me it's a concentrator for hot (i.e. wrong) takes, snarky dismissals, and sloganeering, to a greater extent than any other social media platform. It seems to degrade thoughtful people into ordinary ones and ordinary people into monsters. I'll take even HN flamewars over that any day.

SkyMarshal 7y ago
>It seems to degrade thoughtful people into ordinary ones and ordinary people into monsters. In my experience that’s about 90% true, but there’s a small minority of people who remain thoughtful and insightful even in 280 characters. If you can find them and mutually follow each other, and then mute or block all the blowhards, tryhards and self-promoters, you’ll have cultivated a useful network of colleagues beyond what you might otherwise have via work and conferences. And if multi-disciplinary perspectives are valuable to your own research, then that Twitter network is especially valuable in that regard, as it’s likely to be at least as multidisplinary as your day-to-day work environment and more-so than your usual conference circuit. That said, it does take some work to cultivate that graph. May or may not be worth the time and opportunity cost.
- wsinks 7y ago
  Smart writeup! I'm definitely following some people that I know are 'pitching their dream' (like Peter Zeihan) but have access to useful data and make opinions. I definitely think that specific example is in the hot take category. Do you have any people you'd like to call out to follow? I'm curious about good environmental data and how we can better model our investment in our natural resources.
  - SkyMarshal 7y ago
    Afraid I don't have any recommendations for your interests, but this kind of network is relatively personal and best cultivated on your own, without relying on others' recommendations, imho.
- abnry 7y ago
  I tried blocking the blowhards, but it didn't work. Problem was retweets and the 10% of the time someone sane decided to tweet something insane. Hard to counter that. My feed was just too leaky. So I quit. Things seemed to change around 2016...
  - SyneRyder 7y ago
    You can turn off retweets on a per-user basis, if someone is prone to retweeting nonsense. My answer to the 10% insanity has been to ruthlessly unfollow. Using the Twitter website is still madness, though. The only way I can survive Twitter is with an app like Tweetbot or Fenix, that doesn't show what other users Like & keeps everything chronological. They're still around from the days when Twitter was designed to be used by third-party client apps, ala IRC.
    - SkyMarshal 7y ago
      *>My answer to the 10% insanity has been to ruthlessly unfollow. Second this, absolutely necessary. You don't need many connections to make it worthwhile, just ones you wouldn't otherwise connect with in some other way besides Twitter.
arkitaip 7y ago
Well, yeah. Even if you follow good people, even if you use the various tools for blocking accounts and keywords, the drama is inescapable. People just can't separate their private lives from their professional lives. And yet, when Twitter is good, it's an amazing place of awesome people sharing awesome ideas, projects and kindness.
Fomite 7y ago
In contrast, I'm a scientist on Twitter. It's helped my career. It's let me connect with senior colleagues who aren't at my institution, introduced me to several people I've invited as speakers, and I've written two papers with people I met over Twitter and who I've never met in real life. The key is curation.
andreyk 7y ago
IMO (as a PhD student and active user of science/research Twitter) your perception of science Twitter is largely wrong. Yes there are hot (wrong) takes, snark, etc., but most of it is just plain old paper / blog post announcements with some helpful summaries in a thread (eg https://twitter.com/kelvin_guu/status/1227378652318330885 https://twitter.com/kelvin_guu/status/1227378652318330885 , https://twitter.com/lmthang/status/1222234237262159872 https://twitter.com/lmthang/status/1222234237262159872). It has definitely allowed me to come across papers and researchers I would not have seen otherwise, and this is it's main utility (aside from just being a great way to keep up with new stuff).
closed 7y ago
I had--and still do have--similar concerns as you've raised. But there's been one really nice, overriding factor for me: Twitter pals. I feel like I've gained a few internet ride-or-dies, even if it's mostly us liking / commenting on each other's stuff.
c3534l 7y ago
You're not wrong. But that doesn't mean you can't do some good science communication on there.
mnowicki 7y ago
HN flamewars are the most tame and civil form of communication that takes place on the internet, pretty much anywhere you go is going to be worse than that

by knzhou 7y ago

SkyMarshal 7y ago

>It seems to degrade thoughtful people into ordinary ones and ordinary people into monsters. In my experience that’s about 90% true, but there’s a small minority of people who remain thoughtful and insightful even in 280 characters. If you can find them and mutually follow each other, and then mute or block all the blowhards, tryhards and self-promoters, you’ll have cultivated a useful network of colleagues beyond what you might otherwise have via work and conferences. And if multi-disciplinary perspectives are valuable to your own research, then that Twitter network is especially valuable in that regard, as it’s likely to be at least as multidisplinary as your day-to-day work environment and more-so than your usual conference circuit. That said, it does take some work to cultivate that graph. May or may not be worth the time and opportunity cost.

wsinks 7y ago
Smart writeup! I'm definitely following some people that I know are 'pitching their dream' (like Peter Zeihan) but have access to useful data and make opinions. I definitely think that specific example is in the hot take category. Do you have any people you'd like to call out to follow? I'm curious about good environmental data and how we can better model our investment in our natural resources.
- SkyMarshal 7y ago
  Afraid I don't have any recommendations for your interests, but this kind of network is relatively personal and best cultivated on your own, without relying on others' recommendations, imho.
abnry 7y ago
I tried blocking the blowhards, but it didn't work. Problem was retweets and the 10% of the time someone sane decided to tweet something insane. Hard to counter that. My feed was just too leaky. So I quit. Things seemed to change around 2016...
- SyneRyder 7y ago
  You can turn off retweets on a per-user basis, if someone is prone to retweeting nonsense. My answer to the 10% insanity has been to ruthlessly unfollow. Using the Twitter website is still madness, though. The only way I can survive Twitter is with an app like Tweetbot or Fenix, that doesn't show what other users Like & keeps everything chronological. They're still around from the days when Twitter was designed to be used by third-party client apps, ala IRC.
  - SkyMarshal 7y ago
    *>My answer to the 10% insanity has been to ruthlessly unfollow. Second this, absolutely necessary. You don't need many connections to make it worthwhile, just ones you wouldn't otherwise connect with in some other way besides Twitter.

arkitaip 7y ago

Well, yeah. Even if you follow good people, even if you use the various tools for blocking accounts and keywords, the drama is inescapable. People just can't separate their private lives from their professional lives. And yet, when Twitter is good, it's an amazing place of awesome people sharing awesome ideas, projects and kindness.

Fomite 7y ago

In contrast, I'm a scientist on Twitter. It's helped my career. It's let me connect with senior colleagues who aren't at my institution, introduced me to several people I've invited as speakers, and I've written two papers with people I met over Twitter and who I've never met in real life. The key is curation.

andreyk 7y ago

IMO (as a PhD student and active user of science/research Twitter) your perception of science Twitter is largely wrong. Yes there are hot (wrong) takes, snark, etc., but most of it is just plain old paper / blog post announcements with some helpful summaries in a thread (eg https://twitter.com/kelvin_guu/status/1227378652318330885 https://twitter.com/kelvin_guu/status/1227378652318330885 , https://twitter.com/lmthang/status/1222234237262159872 https://twitter.com/lmthang/status/1222234237262159872). It has definitely allowed me to come across papers and researchers I would not have seen otherwise, and this is it's main utility (aside from just being a great way to keep up with new stuff).

closed 7y ago

I had--and still do have--similar concerns as you've raised. But there's been one really nice, overriding factor for me: Twitter pals. I feel like I've gained a few internet ride-or-dies, even if it's mostly us liking / commenting on each other's stuff.

c3534l 7y ago

You're not wrong. But that doesn't mean you can't do some good science communication on there.

mnowicki 7y ago

HN flamewars are the most tame and civil form of communication that takes place on the internet, pretty much anywhere you go is going to be worse than that