This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Twitter is great. You can scan for breaking news or trending topics, fumble the keyboard in successive 140-keystrokes manoeuvres to share news and views and socialise with all the @-ing and DM-ing. Some (power-) users also specifically follow Twitter hashtags to keep abreast of conferences and be updated with updates from blog networks, for instance. Following user lists is another way to be in touch with certain communities.
With this in mind, I created a Twitter list of young science writers some time back. I originally created the list to keep in touch with the writings of young science writers. Most of articles I highlight in my biweekly picks on this blog, for instance, come from this list.
With time though, I began to see something interesting in my “Young Science Writers” Tweetdeck column. It became increasingly obvious that young science writers interact with one another—sometimes recounting funny anecdotes but many times commenting, critiquing, praising, defending and sharing works of their counterparts. Now, this has been happening way before I created the Twitter list but the latter nonetheless allowed me to witness those exchanges.
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I think those exchanges are great. As young writers interact with one another, they get to know one another. They then form contacts and bonds which can be helpful further down the line: collaborations, the concept of “Friends in low places,” etc.
So, in an attempt to further promote interaction between young science writers, I thought I would publicise my “Young Science Writers” Twitter list here. If you’re a young science writer, you may want to follow the list to know what your counterparts are up to and to start conversing. (Send me a note if you should be but aren’t in the list.)
The more the merrier.