Sunday, October 05, 2014

Competing views on Twitter for scientific topics

An interesting discussion was linked at Clinical Cases and Images. I can see both sides. For me it is a great repository of links to direct readers to primary sources. But I was particularly interested in this comment:

Twitter is ill-suited for nuanced, in-depth scientific discussions. The tweets are only 140-characters after all, and it is difficult to follow a conversation because every single tweet is a separate web page. Tweet materials that appeal to a general audience, rather than complex scientific papers.

Should scientific discussions ever be anything but nuanced and in-depth? I am a little concerned that Twitter is extending the sound bite culture of the TV watching general audiences into the professional arena. Not so good in my view.

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