Dawn Bazely, my applied ecology professor is an advocate for the use of social media platform for her students. At first I didn’t understand its importance and felt that it was just more extra work but after much experience and knowledge about it, i can say it is of importance to science work. Firstly, social media as become popular and a tool that is used by all therefore the use of social media is a useful skill to have and learn. It is a transferable skill that can be used beyond what it seems.
Social media can also create an avenue for scientists to share their research. Scientists can tweet about a new discovery that other scientists can see also conduct their own findings.
Twitter for example has been a popular outlet such that its brevity and the use of pictures and videos can be used to look at information and delve deeper into the topic. people can follow specific accounts that inspire them and filter their interests through the accounts they follow. There are even options for live tweeting from large conferences which can provide avenues for networking and once again, gaining information.
With the experience I have gained from using twitter, I am now able to convey my thoughts about a certain topic and also follow accounts that correlate with my interests which help me collect data and learn about things that I didn’t know before.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 