Exploring the various benefits and downside of Twitter for academics: Opinion

Three recent opinion pieces in the Chronicle of Higher Education address the issues and benefits of using Twitter in academia. Katherine C Epstein writes that Twitter is problematic because it is not led by professional bodies that can keep discussion civil. “Twitter represents the denial of the values that academe is supposed to represent,” writes Epstein, who critiques the length of posts and how unscholarly Tweets are. Irina Dumitrescu reflects on how Twitter can be addictive, decrease attention span, spread false information, and lead to quick reactions rather than careful evaluations. Rafael Walker argues that though Twitter presents challenges, it also provides a way for academics to connect with others in the field that they would never have connected with otherwise. Walker argues that minorities, people with disabilities, and graduate students benefit from this ability to connect with scholarly communities. Chronicle of Higher Ed (Acct. Req.) Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.