Twitter Life
In doing my digital skills stocktake, I realised I take a lot of granted, especially when it comes to my own digital health, wellbeing and identity. The Jisc Digital Capability Framework describes digital literacy as looking “beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. What it means to be digitally literate changes over time and across contexts, so digital literacies are essentially a set of academic and professional situated practices supported by diverse and changing technologies.”
I chose to join Twitter as one of my key digital skills development goals to improve my understanding of the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) sector and build some new connections.
“But I didn’t just join Twitter - I researched how it worked, the privacy settings and what it could offer me”
While I am already an active social media user on Facebook and Instagram, I have never really managed my digital profile per say. With Twitter I wanted to take more control and think about the best way to establish and maintain a professional profile. I am not there yet.
This is a screen of the research I conducted into how to set up a Twitter user profile. I read a number of blogs before proceeding.
I learnt about Twitter’s default settings and how to best use the platform, understanding the audience and different agendas, as well as how to write effective tweets.
Screenshot of tips and tricks.
Most overwhelming I discovered Twitter is an alternative source of breaking news to hand supplemented by a lot of opinions.
As quoted by Hindman in 2008 “[F]rom the moment that [Netscape] became a mass medium, the Internet was seen as more than just a way to revamp commerce and the practice of business. Its most important promise, many loudly declared, was political.” (The Myth of Digital Democracy. New Jersey: Princeton).
Living in the Canberra bubble it is hard not to want to follow along with the political news but I’ve become very aware of what Oliver Burkeman (2019) termed ‘filter bubbles’ and ‘echo chambers’.
Burkerman says “high-speed mobile internet has sent the attention economy into hyperdrive, plunging us into an online world structured to prioritise not the truth, or what matters most, but whatever’s most compelling, which often means whatever makes us angriest.” ("The Attention Economy is in Hyperdrive: How Tech Shaped the 2010s", The Guardian, 2019).
I absolutely access Twitter almost solely through my mobile, while on the go, and check in with it on a regular basis. While I’ve mostly simply watched, it does enrage me at times. I think news overall is never really good. Mostly its the politics that gets me. I am however also very aware how I have curated a group of like minded souls in which to follow.
One of the most positive aspects of joining Twitter has been the GLAM networks and people I have started to link in with. I find Tim Sherratt quite interesting and am pleased to learn about upcoming events and emerging employment opportunities through this forum.
“My first and only tweet to date went quite unnoticed and I’m okay with this ”
One day I might write another one, but for now happy to watch and learn some more.