Social media for scientists: Simple advice on consuming and contributing on SoMe platforms

Simple advice on why you may want to be on social media as a scientist and how to do it. I first give a quick overview the types of social media platforms and how to consume content without it becoming a time sink. I then talk about how to contribute on social media, why you may want to use multiple platforms, and the importance of being a real person on social media. Finally, address the toxic nature of social media and explain why it is less of an issue for scientists, although you may want to avoid certain divisive topics.
0:00 Introduction: why be on SoMe, why visibility matters, and overview
0:47 Major platforms: social networks, photos/videos, blogs/websites, and how to choose
1:37 Be a consumer: finding useful content, SoMe as a filter, and signal-to-noise
2:38 Be a contributor: content creation, content quality, using multiple platforms, and crossposting
3:28 Be a real person: institutional vs. personal accounts and why I prefer the latter
4:19 Avoid toxicity: Twitter and RUclips can be toxic, but scientists are a friendly community

[@kiterunner29]

Great post.

[@larsjuhljensen]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it :-)

[@mkuhn_embl]

You mention toxicity, and your conclusion is that overall scientists are a friendly bunch and that you can mostly stay out of trouble by avoiding certain topics. I'm not sure if that's coming from a privileged vantage point (which I share with you): middle-aged white males attract less toxicity than other groups who are disproportionally the target of toxicity, and different platforms care quite differently about this. So you could say that your use of Twitter/X is apolitical and non-toxic, but others will bear a higher cost for being there and/or missing out by not being there. So like many conferences and courses now have code of conducts to make sure everyone feels welcome, we should also consider if the spaces we use for professional communication are safe for everyone. (I have drawn my conclusions and recently deleted my Twitter account, which I've had since 2008.)

[@larsjuhljensen]

I don't disagree as such, but my point is "relatively speaking". I'm not talking about what I post on Twitter or RUclips, but rather what I see in general in my Twitter feed and the comments sections of RUclips channels I follow. Toxicity is certainly much less of an issue than if I make the mistake to venture outside the scientific community on those same platforms. That is why I argue that while toxicity is a huge issue on Twitter and RUclips more broadly, that is not representative for the bubble of scientists that I see (but as we have seen the past days, it is not always a safe space, also not for middle-aged white males).