Twitter and What I Found There

In exploring Twitter and its extensive array of biology resources, I was surprised to find that I actually did learn something relevant, true, and interesting from social media. In addition, I added a few new accounts to my "following" list.

EnoW. "Twitter Logo Mini". 1/30/2016 via Commons.Wikimedia. Creative Commons CCO 1.0
Universal Public Domain Dedication.

I almost immediately came across two pages that struck my interest: Biology Answers, and Bioscience News. Both pages are centered around biology, but they utilize different types of media to share their information.

For example, on Biology Answers, there are specific, typically college-level, biology questions with links to their answers. In this way, readers of the Twitter page can easily navigate through different topics and quickly find the topics they are searching for.

On the other hand, Bioscience News posts solely links to biology and research centered articles. In doing this, the feed appeals to those who want new information related to biology and research, or those who want a more credible source of information and fuller articles.

Personally, I really enjoyed browsing through the Bioscience News twitter, as I am an extreme science nerd. Two of my favorite articles that I came across can be found here and here.

I especially liked these articles because of my love for new developments and moving forward in the world of science. In both of these stories, new discoveries and methods for improving our quality of life are tested and discussed.

In terms of people's interactions with Twitter pages in general, it is pretty typical to see people making ignorant and/or irrelevant comments. On these pages, however, it is nearly impossible to find even a single comment. I predict that this has to do with the audience of Twitter in general, and the academic nature of the pages. It is likely that people who are using Twitter for a resource of biological studies and information are not using Twitter to leave their opinions on social media.

From this research, I did not gain any new impressions of the biological field; however, I did engage with Twitter in a way I had not before.