“Occasionally people say to me, ‘You’re department chair, you must be incredibly busy. How do you have time to do Twitter?’ and I say how do I have time not to do it?” says Armitage. “It’s such a wonderful way to bring information to yourself. I find it absolutely indispensable.”
DOWNSIDES AND DANGERS
Professor Walt’s Twitter account is peppered with links to articles, commentary on contemporary issues, and also the colloquial “u”—shorthand for the second person.
The abbreviated language is just one of the restrictions imposed by the 140 character limit.
“A downside, an obvious one, is having to shrink everything to very brief, pithy 140 characters,” says Armitage. “Sometimes, it can be very constraining. You can’t lay out complex arguments in such a short space.”
The character limit can also prompt users to post speedy, but unfiltered, content.
“One downside is it encourages sort of snap reactions to things. We see that in response to big events like the Marathon bombings,” says Walt. “It facilitates a lot of uninformed speculation in ways that couldn’t really happen 30 years ago.”
Professors also note that posting on Twitter raises privacy concerns.
“My motto for everything I say and do is: before you say it, you should assume it’s going to be on the front page of the paper,” Miron says.
Christakis agrees. “If you really wanted private communication I think you would use email, and even that’s not private,” he says.
Additionally, Twitter provides an alternative to face-to-face interaction that could lead users to assume an entirely different—and potentially harmful—cyber-persona.
“When people think that they are talking to a machine rather than to another human, I think a lot of misery can come from that,” says Christakis. “A lot of feelings can get hurt.”
“WHERE STUPIDITY REIGNS”
Like their professors, some students think faculty forays into social media have significant academic benefits.
“I really like the idea of professors being on Twitter because I think it will allow research and thinking to be more accessible outside of the classroom,” says Cary A. Williams ’16. “It’s a really good vehicle for making what was once very private knowledge more immediately accessible.”
But not every student can relate to a faculty member’s use of the medium. While some students keep their Twitter accounts private in order to express themselves without being seen by parents or potential employers, most professors have public accounts because their main objective is to disseminate their work to as many people as possible.
“I don’t want my professors on Twitter,” says Hanna Evensen ’16, who is taking a class with a professor with a Twitter account.
Evensen explained that a professorial presence thwarts the carefree and expressive discussion that many Twitter users prefer.
“It is the one place where stupidity reigns,” she adds. “Let stupidity have its place.”
—Staff writer Irfan Mahmud can be reached irfanmahmud@college.harvard.edu.