There is a stigma attached to every scholar around the world, as we usually imagine them as some grumpy old people with thicker glassesof specs and more often than not ‘anti-social’, if you may say. But be aware, because far gone are those days, as studies show that out of every 50 Scholars about two of them might be usingthe popular microblogging site. So now you can actually imagine a Nobel Prize winner in physics tweeting his celebration similar to the way the football team celebrates after winning a trophy.
There were times when these territories were solely belonged to the celebrities and their followers,followed by sports-persons,and now academics are taking to twitter.It is the perfect platform for scholarly gossip, promotingoneself, and showcasing their research work. It also provides them an opportunity to take a break from all the mishaps, helping to build a better society, and to get more social. Twitter handle like @AcademiaObscurahelps us to take a glimpse ofthe lighter side of higher education. These twitter handles provide them and us with the joys and fun involved with education. This Twittersphere explores the parts of academia, which were lost somehow.
Hashtags are used to gather tweets on a particular subject, in academia, they serves as pillars for community building.Some of the well-known twitter handles include #PhDchat,#WithAPhD, #AcWri and #ScholarSunday which providesoccasions for academics to cooperate with one another and absorb ideas that are floating around. While some, like that of #AcademicsWithCats and #AcademicsWithBeer, are probably more fun sidedand light-weighted, these also help communities in different ways, as these are more related to the extravert activities.They help these academies’ to prove that they are also an active bunch of group. Certainly it can turn out to be far refreshing for academies’ to take time away from work.
In some interesting facts, there are alsocomical and witty hashtag games, in which users pose up their best wits in reply to a task which is posed in a hashtag. Worth mentioning here are some hashtags,which will tamper with your imagination,#RuinADateWithAnAcademicInFive, #AcademicForecast, and #ScienceAMovieQuote to name a few.There are also a fewout of manyadmirable accounts which are devoted to dishing out academic funny side, and have become the sole focus of the educational Twittersphere.
Some of the famous accounts like that of ‘Shit Academics Say’, which makessharp notes related to scholar’s life, gathered as much as 90,000 followers.Even so, they all have become famous for their small and sharp remarks on every topic from recentmatters to the languages.
While hashtags like, #ICanHazPdf offerdownloading those crucial research papers that one needs to find,which may be above the payroll of many. If manyofficial subscriptions won’tprovide the one you are gazing for, just tweet the particulars of the documents along with the hashtag and a mail address to obtain those.
At last, there is also a dark side of academia Twitter which doesn’trender any logic at all. But surely we all enjoy listening to these intellect scholars and their mind boggling ideas, with the help of these micro-blogging sites. And who knows when future Einstein will quote some amazing facts and research, we might get to hear first-hand.
140 Words of Academia: Let’s Tweet
