Over the previous couple of weeks I’ve fielded lots of emails from readers who’re questioning if they need to keep on Twitter. Most of these emails have included requests for the place to go subsequent to maintain up with ed tech. My solutions have mainly been, “I can not inform you for those who ought to stop Twitter” and “e mail and Feedly.”
Whether or not it’s best to keep on Twitter is a call that you must make for your self. Some of my good mates have deleted or at the very least disabled their accounts. I haven’t got plans to do the identical, however I additionally have not been updating it or checking it practically as a lot as I did 5 years in the past not to mention because the Elon Musk takeover. For me, the shine of social media dulled at the very least 5 years in the past. Since then my favourite approach to work together with individuals has been by way of e mail or cellphone calls or Zoom calls. That goes for skilled interactions in addition to private interactions.
As for “maintaining” I subscribe to a couple weekly newsletters that I at all times learn. Those embody the TCEA e-newsletter, Lee LeFever’s e-newsletter, and Chris Brogan’s e-newsletter. And I’ve a number of PR contacts who I belief to solely ship me worthwhile press releases (the remainder go straight to the trash bin). I’m additionally an avid listener of the Planet Money podcasts from NPR.
Feedly is the RSS reader that I’ve been utilizing because the demise of Google Reader. If you are undecided what an RSS reader is, it is mainly a approach to learn updates out of your favourite web sites with out having to go to them immediately. A greater clarification is offered by Lee LeFever in his video RSS in Plain English.
Feedly makes it simple to subscribe to the web sites that you just like and browse their updates multi functional place. With the exception of the few newsletters that I discussed above, I want to make use of Feedly to comply with my favourite web sites as a result of I can do it alone tempo with out feeling like my inbox is being invaded. If you need to give Feedly a attempt, watch this video to discover ways to get began.
What about TikTookay, Instagram, Mastodon, Facebook, LinkedIn, flavor-of-the-day?
My Facebook web page was by no means a precedence for me even when my posts there have been getting 100,000+ every day natural interactions. That was earlier than Facebook began suppressing web page content material that was paid promoting. The likes had been only a by-product of sharing my weblog posts. That mentioned, I nonetheless share my weblog posts there simply in case somebody is definitely attempting to comply with my web page regardless of the obstacles that Facebook places in place.
The mess that’s the Facebook feed algorithm is consultant of the higher problem of looking for and comply with significant data on any social media platform. All of the platforms reward brief, attention-grabbing content material no matter whether or not or not there’s any substance to it. It’s high quality for leisure (or killing time in line at a authorities workplace just like the DMV), but it surely’s not the place I’m going for substance. When I would like substance I’ll flip to long-form content material present in Feedly, in e mail newsletters, and more and more I get misplaced in rabbit holes on Google Scholar.
To be clear, I have not but given Mastodon a superb, honest attempt. That’s most likely the results of two issues. First, I have not made the time. Second, I nonetheless really feel burned by a number of the previous Twitter schooling “chats” that turned from nice conversations to competitions of individuals attempting to make themselves appear insightful and or be the primary to make use of a brand new hashtag. It has been about ten years since I engaged in a kind of “chats.” If you discover worth in them, nice! If I’m utterly mistaken about Mastodon turning into Twitter schooling chats 2.0, please e mail me and inform me why I’m mistaken.
Get Off My Lawn!
I went forwards and backwards on whether or not or not I ought to publish this publish as a result of I worry that it’d come throughout as “previous man yelling at children on his garden.” That was not my intention. My intention was to supply some concepts for different methods in addition to social media to remain engaged in casual skilled studying. And if you wish to subscribe to my weekly e-newsletter, you may achieve this right here.