Yet here I am propelled in to the world of blogs and most recently Twitter, in to forms of media that in private I would steer far away from. On a personal level I am not interested in the musings of other people, and from what I can see, a lot of what is published generally on Twitter, to me, is absolute nonsense.
There are an increasing number of reports and analysis that comment on how social media is bad for us, that is, the whole human race as opposed to just sticks in the mud.
A 2019 article in the Washington Post https://wapo.st/3219DnX headlined "Twitter is eroding your intelligence" explains it all. Is it then counterintuitive to ask students to sign up to Twitter as part of their course? That is perhaps for another day.
In any case, the Washington Post article cites Italian research which reached the conclusion that "blogs and social networking sites actively impair performance, rather than simply failing to augment learning".
This is quite alarming, not for fellow students, as we will be so impaired we won't notice the difference, but for the University. If we accept the arguments and concerns of Troy Cooper and Sue Hemmings (see resources week 2 - EL6052) we students will be able to ask for our money back at the end of the course.
More seriously, there are also concerns over mental health.
What then is the point of Twitter, how can it be used in a non-impairing way?
For businesses, advantages/uses of Twitter have been suggested such as: communicating up to date information, generating leads and new business, providing customer service, and showing your company's personality. There are others, but I am not persuaded as this sounds all very generalised.
Instead I am encouraged and like the comments made in the FT and found at https://on.ft.com/2SoDWBO. This reflects on research carried out in part by the National University of Ireland and comments "that the most efficient users were those who cultivated a deliberately small but diverse network that challenged their way of thinking or alerted them to new ideas. That led them to more creative and better solutions to work problems".
This has to be the purpose of using Twitter in the workplace or university, and our own #tcidul group also achieves this (apart from Dominos adverts). That's good news, the bad news is we will not be able to claim our money back.
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