I created a Twitter account for Contrast Lit Mag this year.
Twitter has been around for what seems like FOREVER now, and chances are, you have a Twitter of your own. (But if you don’t have a Twitter, there’s nothing wrong with that.)
When I first came to McDaniel, I was surprised by how enthusiastic some professors were about Twitter. I hadn’t bothered with Twitter in high school because I thought it was a place people went to share meaningless thoughts and life happenings, like little frustrations and what they ate for dinner. I also already had Facebook and Tumblr — surely, two were enough.
But eventually, I hopped aboard the Twitter train the spring of my sophomore year because it was time. So many student organizations and administrative offices on campus use Twitter and lots of professors use it too. (I also figured it would be useful to know how to use in case I decide to seek social media jobs outside of campus.)
I discovered that Twitter is actually a really useful place to find out what’s going on around campus and in the world outside of campus. (I don’t watch a lot of news while I’m at school because I get pretty busy, so seeing headlines on Twitter has been very useful to me.) I also found out that tons of academics are on Twitter and they tweet links to lots of interesting and intellectual articles. No wonder so many of the cool professors are on Twitter!
Since then, I’ve tweeted for the McDaniel Free Press and the Writing Center. I even created a twitter account for Contrast, McDaniel’s literary magazine, which I co-edited this year.
Some professors even bring Twitter to the classroom. In my New Media Writing class, we had to tweet about our readings as part of our class participation grade. I found that tweeting readings was useful exercise in condensing complicated thoughts and a great way to engage with others about texts and information. We also had to create separate Twitter accounts for our brand creation project. All of us were required to choose a specific aspect of campus to create a brand about, and we had to use Twitter, Tumblr, Storify, and Pinterest to curate these brands. My project was called McDaniel Coffee, and it was an enjoyable experience.
I’ve learned that Twitter is a lot of fun. With plenty of friends, bands, and parody accounts to follow, being on Twitter has been a great experience for me. I share silly thoughts and happenings and art I find online with my brother, who’s now also in college; it’s been a wonderful way to stay connected. I tweet encouragement to my friends, who use Twitter to document their progress on major assignments. And most excitingly, I’ve tweeted at some favorite bands of mine and gotten retweets and responses back. Very cool!
So if you like Twitter, McDaniel might be for you. And if Twitter’s not your cup of tea, don’t fret — though we may find a way to get you hooked!
Leave a Reply