On the other hand, Dr. Kyburz brought up a valid point. As she mentioned, Twitter is a tool used by countless politicians, doctors, actors, writers, news stations, and organizations. Social media can be used to promote, persuade, inform, and learn. I think that because college students are still students, and not professionals, we don't find Twitter as useful. However, this could change after graduating depending on what field or career individuals choose to pursue. Although, for some of us, Twitter may never be a convenient or helpful tool for promoting ourselves and/or career. As a future nurse, I can't foresee many reasons as to how Twitter could be useful to myself and my patients. In nursing, the best way to open communication with a patient is to let them know to use a call light button during their visit and then give them their doctor's phone number for post visit questions and concerns.
I think that some individuals in the class are not interested in using Twitter because it does not seem particularly useful now... and it may not seem useful even once we start our careers. But, if students gave the social media site a chance, they may discover that Twitter can be informative and enlightening if you discover interesting "hashtags" or "follow" others that actually do have something to say.
I am glad I stumbled upon this blog, as it raises an excellent point - like most things, the utility of twitter depends on the user. From personal experience I've found twitter an excellent place to keep updated on the news, as long as you keep your "follows" very limited to people that "actually do have something to say"
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment... Even though I know you don't have a Twitter and you're not even in this class ;p
DeleteI like how you related to your personal life regarding nursing. It raises a great point that Twitter can help inform people. Also, I agree that many people are embarrassed by their past. I know for myself I am embarrassed when I read my "Timehop" every morning. haha
ReplyDeleteI haven't downloaded the Timehop app yet, but I've noticed that Facebook has a similar feature now that allows you to share "memories" from that same day years before... Usually the posts are embarrassing or the pictures are with people I don't even talk to anymore ;p
DeleteYou bring up some great points! I agree that college students really don't have the same use for twitter as politicians, news stations, writers, etc. For college students, it's just a place to tweet about random things. For now, it's definitely just a way to follow people that do have something important to say, as you mentioned. I also agree that many people will not need to tweet in order to communicate for their career. Similar to nursing, my future in athletic training will be based on my skills and patient care, not what I tweet in my spare time.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some great points! I agree that college students really don't have the same use for twitter as politicians, news stations, writers, etc. For college students, it's just a place to tweet about random things. For now, it's definitely just a way to follow people that do have something important to say, as you mentioned. I also agree that many people will not need to tweet in order to communicate for their career. Similar to nursing, my future in athletic training will be based on my skills and patient care, not what I tweet in my spare time.
ReplyDeleteHi Betty,
DeleteThanks for the response :)
You're right, our success in the medical field will depend on our skills and patient care. I can't imagine that our personal Twitter accounts would be useful to promote our own jobs. But it is interesting to follow accounts of famous doctors and accounts like "Craziest Injuries".
Agreed! I started using Twitter in high school to do as mentioned: tweet my every move #thatslife. But as I hit my junior and senior year I found myself unfollowing a lot of my classmates and following more and more public figures such as candidates or my role models. I think people will jump on the Twitter bandwagon once they find their own specific use for it!
ReplyDeleteHi Caitlin,
DeleteI'm in the same boat right now. A lot of people from my old high school post a lot... But those people are starting to seem a lot less relevant now. I tend to scroll past their posts. On the other hand, tweets by political figures and certain organizations are actually worth reading.
I do believe that sites like Twitter increase to the chance of you finding information on jobs but when you get deeper in your field I believe that your success relies heavily on your ability to communicate one-on-one. "In nursing, the best way to open communication with a patient is to let them know to use a call light button during their visit and then give them their doctor's phone number for post visit questions and concerns."
ReplyDeleteMontee,
DeleteThanks for the comment. Its good to get an opinion from someone who is a firm believer of in person communication :)
I think there are many opinions about twitter because there are a vast amount of types of people who use it, like you said towards the end. An interesting thing many people so readily bring up about Twitter is how it helps people "fight" (against serious things like injustice or more mundane things like first world problems). Twitter actually played a crucial role in allowing Egypt to host their first democratic election by giving the revolutionaries a method of communication and free publicity (http://www.wired.com/2011/02/egypts-revolutionary-fire/).
ReplyDeleteFree publicity is readily available on Twitter, but as far as communication goes, it can get skewed- which is where I personally have a problem with Twitter. There are so many movements on Twitter and a vast majority of them have internal conflicts about what the movement is actually about. With conflict comes anger, and anger leads to some pretty stupid and misinformed posts, to put it bluntly. Since there is (usually) no central area or leader that #change groups can goto, every person's idea of what an ideology is or what a movement means is thrown in the mix, so in the end everyone is just trying to talk over each other. But as the old saying goes, "a few bad apples will ruin the bunch". And I'm not saying that Twitter is the only social media site with this problem, every site has its "dark side" of misinformed people who are too eager to try and make their opinions heard.
Ian,
DeleteI liked your example about Egypt's first democratic election. Twitter was buzzing about the election.
You're definitely right about a lot of conflict arising from Twitter. You mentioned, "There are so many movements on Twitter and a vast majority of them have internal conflicts about what the movement is actually about." I think a prime example of this is feminism. Unfortunately feminism is a great movement that has gained a bad reputation due to lack of education and like you said, "a few bad apples ruining the bunch".
What a great point you made when you said that social media can be used to learn and promote various causes. I do believe that social media is a great tool to spread awareness on many topics that are not known. This awareness can be spread in the matter of seconds to the whole world. Although, you may not find use as to learning stuff in your profession on social media it is still a great way to be informed on many other topics.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the response Juan :) Social media will definitely continue to be a way for me to stay informed, even though I will not be using it for my career. Like you mentioned, social media is also an efficient way to rapidly spread news.
Delete