I use the social networks Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn,
and I use them for different purposes. I think most people might say the same.
It’s a conscious decision on my part to keep them separate from each other.
Facebook is my way of keeping in touch with friends and family in the USA, and
to some extent, here in Europe. You’d be surprised at how difficult it’s become to
get people who live only a town or two away from Oslo, together in one room for
a social event. Planning an evening out with three or more people has become a
major affair; it’s often easier to update each other on what’s going on via
Facebook. So instead of writing five emails a week to friends, I update my
status on Facebook several times per week, but not on a daily basis. So Facebook is for personal use. I use Twitter
for professional purposes; I follow most science-related sites; the list grows
ever longer. I am now following sites that have to do with politics and
government, and find them interesting as well. Not surprising perhaps, when you
understand the importance of politics in the creation of policies for how
science should be made understandable and relevant for the public (e.g. climate
change, global warming, science education in schools, sustainable energy
sources). When I started off using Twitter, I wasn’t sure what it might be good
for, and I didn’t understand why people sang its praises. Now I know. It’s an
amazing way of getting news as it happens. Science publishers like Nature and Science have discovered this; they need only post a short tweet as
to what the new hot article is on their websites and in their journals and they’re
guaranteed that interested readers will read their tweets and click on the
relevant links. New scientific discoveries and interesting new articles spread
like wildfire. So I use Twitter to stay updated on what is going on in my
field, as well as in science generally. I even credit Twitter with getting me
interested in astronomy. You need only follow NASA on Twitter (https://twitter.com/NASA) to understand
why. If I had been better in math, I might have been an astronomer, the field
is that interesting. Daily Science is another site I follow; you can find them
here: https://twitter.com/DailyScienceUp.
Guardian Science is another favorite; you can find them here: https://twitter.com/guardianscience.
And if you’re interested in following me on Twitter, here is the link: https://twitter.com/paulamdeangelis.
Finally, LinkedIn; it doesn’t surprise me at all that
potential employers/recruiters utilize this site frequently. I read an article
the other day (courtesy of Twitter) that reported that LinkedIn was the social
network that most recruiters use (http://www.livescience.com/29178-recruiters-find-job.html?cmpid=514645).
What other platform provides CVs, references, and personal/professional
interests for potential candidates for employment? Better yet, what other
platform provides you with a candidate’s connections, that may be even more
interesting (employable) than the actual candidate in question? This network, like
Twitter, is reserved for my professional use, and I plan on keeping it that
way. I am careful as to whom I include as a connection, as I want to build a
network that can be valuable to me professionally. A nice touch is that your
connections can write recommendations for you that are published on the site.
Potential employers read such things. Your connections can also recommend
specific skills, but I find this aspect less useful than an actual written
recommendation.
How things have changed during the past ten years. In that
sense, who knows what the next ten years will bring? One thing is certain;
there is a new social network or platform just waiting in the wings, whether
you like it or not, or whether the current social networks like it or not. That’s
the nature of the beast.
