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\title{Social media for the introverted scientist (an opinion)\\}



\author[1]{Anna Ceguerra}%
\author[1]{Authorea Reddit}%
\affil[1]{Affiliation not available}%


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  \date{April 25, 2026}


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When I first read the question for this essay competition, I immediately
associated the word `social' with the word `personal', i.e. outside of
work. Social media is becoming an important source of primary
information about the lives of ordinary people like you and me. But I am
wary.\\

\section*{BFF}\label{bff}

Compared to other forms of historical artefacts, physical media for
digital information have shorter lifespans. But for various reasons,
digital information online is notoriously difficult to delete (see
internet archive). On a personal level, it could be a disaster. One
mistake in your youth could look unfavourably upon you in the future,
when you are looking for that next career step. So, while I am online, I
try to remain quiet.\\

I do, however, listen. For instance, in Google or Bing, I paste in the
error message popping up on my computer, and someone had the same
problem as me, and another had solved it! Over time, I have come to know
specific technical forums to contain good answers. Some answers I can
trust, others I discard. I wonder how people used to solve technical
problems before Google, and I remember that I did experience this
myself, during my undergraduate days. There were certain tricks, like
fixing the very top error after compiling unsuccessfully. Or using a
binary search with print statements. But nothing beats getting a good
sample of a command to run, or a pointer to the right direction.\\

This is when I realised that Bing or Google is analogous to~my best
friend, a friend who seems to know everyone, who collectively knows a
lot. If this is the case, then every website accessible from that search
engine can, effectively, be part of my social network. My network is
therefore only limited by my fields of interest and my ability to
articulate them.\\

\section*{Online relationship}\label{online-relationship}

Synonymous with the early postdoc is moving. I have resisted this, but
many of my colleagues who have come to work with us have since moved to
other organisations, whether it be in Australia or overseas. Keeping in
touch is easy with Facebook, Skype, even by telephone.\\

On social media (Facebook, ResearchGate, LinkedIn, etc.), I have small
accounts: I'm not a big follower, nor am I followed that much, nor do I
post that often. Some of my closest friends are not my friends on social
media. And I like it that way. Because of its asynchronous nature,
social media, to me, gives a sense of distance in time.\\

What I do like is that I can pull information that my colleagues have
posted, when it is convenient for me. I can set notifications for
certain types of events, and choose to view them later.\\

\section*{Language literacy}\label{language-literacy}

I used to tell a bad joke that I was only literate in one language
(English). I only told the joke once or twice because people just stared
at me, but it highlights the problems in communicating in writing when
there is a language barrier.~\\

Facebook provides a translation at a click of a button. Having this
function is so important, despite providing an imperfect translation. I
am still only literate in one language, but at least I have more
languages accessible to me.\\

\section*{Nature of science research}\label{nature-of-science-research}

Science is rarely done alone nowadays. The problems are complex, and the
solutions multi-disciplinary. The papers I read have several authors,
each author contributing their expertise to the whole puzzle.\\

Science is a selective process. Over time, we accumulate evidence to
support or refute theories. We classify ideas on a plausibility scale,
based on the balance of experimental~evidence.\\

Science is knowledge-generating. As scientists, we are trained to
perform synthesis of information from raw data. We seek to understand
nature, from the subatomic level to the scale of the universe, based on
measurable observations. The main outlet for this primary source of
information is peer-reviewed journal papers.\\

Science takes time. When we ``stand on the shoulders of giants'', there
is an assumption that the previous discoveries are themselves true. This
is partly the reason why there can be such long, pregnant pauses in
scientific developments. We want to give birth to a healthy discovery
that can be the basis for future discoveries.~Scientists should not
jeopardise careful interpretation of experiments for the sake of a quick
post. There is little tolerance for error.\\

\section*{The future}\label{auto-label-section-290927}

As social media matures it will bond with research, and both may be
unrecognisable in several generations' time. Science may seem exclusive
from the wider community today, but we just want to get it right so it
sets a solid foundation for future development. Whereas you can post
quickly on social media, and it can be there for digital eternity. Given
my reservations, it was a personal challenge to expose my opinions. Yet
it is a small step of where the future may be.

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