[For my
annual Thanksgiving series,
I thought I’d
express my gratitude
for some of the best of our 21st century digital age and what it has
contributed to my work and life. I’d love to hear your thanks, for anything and
everything, as well!]
On three things
that the popular social media site does exceptionally well.
I’ve already written
a post about one thing I think Twitter does very well: inform. I know all
the complaints about navel-gazing and posts on people’s breakfasts and so on,
and I’m sure it depends in large part on whom you follow; but in my case, I’m fortunate
to follow an exceptional community
of scholars, writers, artists, and activists, and I learn something interesting
and meaningful (about the past, about the present, about works and artists I
don’t yet know, and more) every time I’m there. It’s very much a chaotic but multi-vocal,
haphazard but highly democratic classroom—I think Paulo
Freire would approve.
I also mentioned
community and connection in that prior post, but wanted to say a bit more about
that side to Twitter. I have wonderful
students and colleagues
at Fitchburg State, and they represent one of many
communities to which I’m very happy to belong. But the truth is that much
of academic and scholarly work is solitary and isolating, entails an individual
sitting with his or her writing and texts, thoughts and questions. Nothing is
going to change those elements to the work, but I have found that Twitter’s
virtual but very definite community can complement them—allowing me to share
works and works in progress, to hear and read about those of colleagues, to
connect with peers who are themselves writing and working, and just in every
sense to be feel that I am not alone in what I’m doing and struggling with and hoping
for.
Our 21st
century struggles go well beyond scholarly endeavors, of course, and Twitter
has also proven pretty impressive at responding to them. Perhaps the most
famous cases, ones to which my cousin
John Scott-Railton has contributed impressively, are various events related
to the
Arab Spring: the riots in Egypt, elections in Iran, and so on. But here in
America, I found Twitter immeasurably helpful and meaningful in
response to the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson—in covering the protests
and police responses in the immediate aftermath, in sharing the stories and
voices of a thread like #BlackLivesMatter,
and just in bringing multiple communities (on the ground and elsewhere,
activist and political, African American and other allies, and so on) together.
In that case, as in every one, Twitter and the digital cannot take the place of
other realities and stories—but they can and do contribute to those realities
and stories, significantly and potently. One more reason to be thankful for
their 21st century existence!
Next thanks
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other AmericanThanks you’d share?
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