So you want to understand Twitter….

Are you an easily befuddled academic?  Have you heard about Twitter but are afraid of new-fangled Web 2.0 technologies?  Would you like to know more?  If so, the London School of Economics is ready to help you out!  They have produced this useful Twitter guide for academics to help even the most technophobic of professors master this ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Are you an easily befuddled academic?  Have you heard about Twitter but are afraid of new-fangled Web 2.0 technologies?  Would you like to know more? 

Are you an easily befuddled academic?  Have you heard about Twitter but are afraid of new-fangled Web 2.0 technologies?  Would you like to know more? 

If so, the London School of Economics is ready to help you out!  They have produced this useful Twitter guide for academics to help even the most technophobic of professors master this technnology, in just a few easy steps.  Go check it out!

My only criticism of the guide is that LSE’s three categories of tweets — "substantive", "conversational" and "middle-ground" — leaves out the bulk of academic tweets I tend to read and write, which would best be categorized as "snarky." 

[This blog post feels… strange and old-fashioned–ed.]  This is the biggest effect of Twitter on blogging — this kind of post is now practically obsolete.  An entire category of "linking" posts that I used to write with decent frequency have been supplanted by tweets containing a url and a one-sentence descriptor/critique.  The only reason I’m blogging this one is that a tweet wouldn’t reach the desired audience of Academics Who Are Scared of Twitter. 

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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