Instead of more sessions on how to use Twitter to build community (a conversation that’s been going since Twitter launched), I would have liked to see more thoughtful and critical discussion around the use of social media for HPE at the AMEE conference.
For example, this piece by Cal Newport, where he questions the idea that we even need social media networks that operate at scale.
“Forcing millions of people into the same shared conversation is unnatural, requiring aggressive curation that in turn leads to the type of supercharged engagement that seems to leave everyone upset and exhausted.”
I’d like to see more niche conversations between smaller groups of like-minded people. My concern is that a large audience encourages each of us to shift from asking “What can I learn from you?”, to “What can I tell you about me?”
We use global-level conversation platforms, like Twitter, to broadcast and not listen. I’m more interested in blogs, newsletters, and podcasts as channels for sharing and learning, and where the interactions take place on a human-level.