Time to think beyond the platform
The Educationalist. By Alexandra Mihai
Welcome to a rather unusual - and spontaneous- issue of “The Educationalist”! I have to start with a disclaimer: this is not a collection of useful resources and ideas you are used to seeing in this space. This is a quick reflection on the value of social networks and how we *really* connect, prompted of course by the probably unavoidable demise of Twitter (although I still can’t really believe it so I’ll stick there for a while, I guess till the lights are off). Instead of posting it as a Twitter thread, I felt it may be a better idea to share my thoughts here, as I am anyway trying to use this space, as much as possible, to nurture a community. Thanks to all of you for making me believe it’s possible! So here we go…
The main reason I’m writing this is to try to put some order in my thoughts. Having gone through many transitions in the past, I gradually learned to resist attaching myself to places, objects, jobs… It’s not easy, but I think I pretty much figured it out. And still, it is never easy to let go of something you treasure. To move on. The temptation to look for something similar, to find a replacement is big. This is how I feel about Twitter right now. And no matter how much I try to rationalise my arguments, there will always be a bit of nostalgia, especially now when, like many, I am in the process of “debirdifying” (yes, that’s a word, and an application to find Twitter followers on Mastodon). After all, for me Twitter has been the warmest, most generous and supportive learning community in the past few years.
But you know me by now, I have to start by asking myself WHY. Why do I find it so useful? Why do I enjoy it? What is the thing I value most on Twitter? I need to answer these questions before I can decide what’s next.
The WHY
No matter how I look at it, it’s all about the people. Twitter has offered me a space to connect with like-minded people in all corners of the world, people I would have most likely never met otherwise. This led to meaningful - and sometimes silly- exchanges, to research projects, to the chance to broaden my network beyond what I could ever expect. I was lucky. Not everyone has had this sort of experience on Twitter, quite the contrary. So I am not taking it for granted. But what I want to emphasise is that these connections happened serendipitously. This has been the most amazing thing about Twitter, for me. While I generally value intentionality (as I am sure you know if you’re a reader of this newsletter), I’ve been enjoying Twitter mostly because I could bounce off my thoughts and get useful input from a variety of angles, from people whom I would either not have access to or not think of asking otherwise. This helped me, both in my research and in my practice, to polish my ideas and be able to connect and integrate different perspectives.
The format- short posts- also really appeals to me. It forces me to get to the essence of what I want to say. I find it easier to put down an idea under the form of a tweet, and then elaborate on it (alone and with the help of the community). It helps me focus. I often start blog posts and even academic articles with one or more tweets. I’ve often also used it for note-taking at conferences, as the short format enables me to rephrase and concentrate each idea in one tweet.
Last but not least, I managed in the past years to create a nice synergy between sharing things in a longer format here, in my newsletter and on my blog, and posting them on Twitter to enhance the reach. The two have been working together well, as I explain here.
What now?
Now this is the tricky part. Every time something in our current environment is being shaken from its roots is a good time to rethink it. If only it were that easy. Once we found a comfortable place (a flat, a restaurant, a platform…) it is brutal to be thrown out and forced to find a new place. To build a new place maybe. It takes time. It takes commitment. And we are all rather worn out right now.
So what do we do? We run to a new platform, hoping to recreate the exact same thing we liked about Twitter. We hope we’ll get the party started over there and everyone else we like will join. But my gut feeling says it doesn’t work like this. We might reconnect with some people on the other side, but every platform has its own dynamic, and people have only that much time and bandwidth to learn how to operate in a new space, especially if it has a slightly different logic. And even if we find each other again, I doubt the interactions will be the same.
But this is not necessarily bad. Maybe we do need something new. Something unlike Twitter. Yes, let’s dare to say it out loud. Maybe it is (high) time to evaluate our involvement in various social networks, to reflect on what we get out of our interactions there, on what we value most about the respective network.
It’s time to try to think beyond the platform. We see now (and we always knew deep inside, if we are honest), how vulnerable these “free” social networks are. And I am not even talking about ethical aspects here. But they draw us in and if we’re lucky, like I’ve been on Twitter, we find wonderful people there. By chance. Can’t emphasise that enough. This is hard to replicate by design. Maybe not impossible, after all, it did happen with twitter, at least for some communities like the ones I am part of.
So what will I do next?
I don’t have an answer really. Will stick to Twitter until things fade out, if that will be the case (see, I am somehow still optimistic). I’ve created a Mastodon account today (you can find me @Anda19@mastodon.world) but truth be told I am not yet sure how and when I will really start to explore and engage with the space. I use my LinkedIn account sporadically, so maybe there will be more action there, but I am also not entirely convinced.
I am extremely grateful for this community I created here at “The Educationalist”. It exceeded my expectations and it keeps growing. So maybe this is the answer for me. For now at least. I was also very lucky to actually connect personally with some of my tweeps and will cherish and keep those connections, of course, outside the boundaries of any platform.
I trust that, even if Twitter is gone one day, you will keep reading this newsletter, and maybe start commenting over here, so we can keep the discussion going. I would really appreciate this! As I said, it’s all about the people and not the platform. Thank you so much for your confidence and for being my thought partners.
