Twitter tells me that on or about this day ten years ago, I hatched my cyber-identity and joined the evolving social media world, at least, I took my tentative reluctant first steps. Indeed, so uncertain was I that for a little while I kept the account private, unsure what to make of this.
In the ten years hence, of course, much has changed, some for good, some not so. As I sit here in Tokyo in partial lockdown, in between conducting classes and holding meetings in one form or another 'online', I thought it might be worth a bit of a reflection on the past ten years on this platform. Will I be here in ten years time? I don't know. Ten years ago if you told me I'd be working in Tokyo I'd would have been a little skeptical.
Before we jump into the ten thoughts on ten years of twitter, here's a short recall on how I got to be here, on twitter, here blogging and over there on Instagram.
In 2010, twitter still hadn't quite caught on I suppose in the way MySpace (is that what it was called?) or Facebook was emerging; indeed at the time, a few political scientists of my acquaintance were getting rather excited about something called 'Second Life' as an experimental space to create the new ideal fair and just society. But I wasn't having any of it, I had enough to do as a lecturer in a regional university and an amateur musician in community orchestras, thank you. Anyway, this particular semester, I was teaching a subject called 'Politics and the Media' and although not participating in the online world I was observing closely enough to recognise social media was exerting some level of influence in the political sphere. Enter one of our then-recently graduated politics students who appeared to be pretty savvy in this arena, Todd Winther, aka @toddocracy
I invited Todd along to give a guest lecture on this emerging platform, indeed, I suggest he was one of the pioneers of using twitter as a political tool and he gave a most engaging lecture. So engaging, I was duped by his charismatic spin to be the 'look it's easy to set up an account, let's get Donna to set up one now'. 'Er, what?' But in a completely unrehearsed double act, there I was, put on the spot and the account @psephy was hatched. And why, or what, is 'psephy' is the most asked question. Well, when it came to putting a name to the account (at the time there was still a character limit) I asked the students, who were naturally much more accustomed to these things. We settled on psephy, short for 'psephologist' (silent p) because I was always telling students of politics that when they were mocked for being students of politics, I always told them to tell people that you are planning to be a psephologist, it tends to stop the mocking pretty quickly. And a psephologist is, you ask? One who dabbles in the fine art/science of psephology, analysing voting and perhaps politics more broadly.
I also admired Todd's willingness to put his views firmly in the public sphere via his blog. It took me a little while but I soon gathered the courage, and here we are.
That's the story.
 |
| Birds of Brisbane (a flock of seagulls, tra-la) |
Now, ten years on. Why am I still here? Like many here, it has its pros and cons, nay its ugly side but also uplifting and supportive moments. I try very hard to be part of the supportive tweeps. So to my ten thoughts on ten years for what they are worth.
1. I have met some wonderful people via twitter, some only online, some from an online presence to a real life acquaintance and others I've met in real life and we've continued the conversations on twitter. I do feel that with a carefully curated list, you can be a member of an engaging community of friends and colleagues, close to what I imagine we imagined it would be.
2. As a specialist in Japanese politics and society, twitter early on gave me access to Japanese sources of information I might not otherwise have come across while living in Australia. This was never more more so with the 11 March Tohoku Earthquake/Tsunami/Fukushima meltdown. I would go so far to suggest that it shifted my research direction and partly contributed to finding myself in my present position, back in Japan doing research on democratic politics.
3. In the early days, it seemed everyone was willing to exchange a 'tweet', journalists, politicians and others in a way that made you feel like you were in a big conversation. That doesn't happen so much now.
4. You are what you tweet, or you should be. I have always maintained a policy of tweeting others as I would want to be tweeted. I have no false persona, I have no wish to engage in the troll wars, I do not swear (well, hardly, maybe the occasional 'bloody'), but that requires much self-discipline of late...
5. I tend to keep to tweeting what I know or find of interest. That seems to fall into two main areas--one is as a conduit for exchanging information on Japan and Australia, either the relationship or social or political phenomena; the other is engaging with tweepsters as friends, sharing aspects of our diverse lives (in recent times, I've tagged that #tokyolyf).
6. I have twitter to thank for becoming part of the ABC Brisbane family. One random tweet one day caught the eye of one of the producers and, one thing after another, I've had the privilege of contributing on occasion to different programs. Even today, I still manage to participate via the twittersphere, from here in Tokyo. In my line of work, a media presence is valuable and I thank my friends at ABC Brisbane and regionals, for the opportunities they've given this once shy media person.
7. Twitter the platform, needs a lot of fixing. Others have spoken about this at length elsewhere. I get followed by the weirdest 'bots' and it is disappointing when what we all identify as being so wrong with the platform seems to be left unattended as if it is deliberate. This problem has loomed large in my thoughts as I weigh up the value of staying versus going. I would leave, if a better platform emerged. I reckon.
8. I adjusted to the shift from 140 chars to 280 chars more smoothly than I imagined, though it was always possible to express much more in a Japanese tweet of 140chars. The improvements to the site over the years, while controversial at the time, have settled (except for the bad bits, see 7 above). The ads can be a bit heavy-handed, in Japanese and English. Oh, and an edit button would be good (does anyone else remember that brief moment in twitter time when we could edit tweets, using MT for 'modified tweet' as opposed to the more common RT?)
9. I set up a blog once I realised that getting my 'view' out in public quickly wasn't such a bad thing and that as I grew in confidence, I needed more than 140-280chars to expand on some ideas. I guess being trained in academia with its propensity to need to knock you down more often than not can hinder personal progress in that way. I think too, my academic training also makes me cautious in what I'm prepared to tweet, or not to tweet. My basic rule still rules, before you hit send (on an email) or tweet, are you sure it is something you would say to the recipient in person? If not, delete. I've deleted more than a few drafts.
10. So ten years, and 105,775 tweets later...still here. It has allowed me develop an alternative path as an academic contributor to the public arena,* not necessarily in a way accepted by the academy, but overall, probably closer to what I wanted to do when I decided to pursue an academic career. I guess that too is still evolving so, for the foreseeable future at least, I still be around, tweeting from my little corner of the twitterverse.
*However, I remain puzzled that my tweets that garner the most likes rarely, if ever, have anything to do with my professional expertise but often just a (trying to be) pithy comment on the issue of the day. Teehee.
Thanks for being part of the journey, thusfar.
 |
| Birds of Tokyo (true, outside my window, in the 'burbs) |
