I think the two biggest areas it's useful is discoverability and networking. I often catch interesting papers on Twitter that I missed through other avenues. An

I think the two biggest areas it's useful is discoverability and networking. I often catch interesting papers on Twitter that I missed through other avenues. And a lot of people post threads highlighting the main takeaways of their papers which often saves a lot of time and confusion once I get into the paper itself. Also, I've definitely made connections on Twitter with whom I went on to meet up with at conferences and build both lasting professional connections and friendships, and which have led to some collaborations. It's also where a lot of people post job opportunities (especially postdoc openings). Back when I was looking for a postdoc (years back now), about half of my interviews came from people that had posted open calls on Twitter. So, all told -- I don't think there's a lot of productive work (i.e., research) directly going on on twitter, but that doesn't mean that it isn't still making important contributions to the profession. Also, yes, the water cooler is fun