{"id":10575,"date":"2022-11-29T17:34:09","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T22:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=10575"},"modified":"2022-11-29T17:34:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T22:34:09","slug":"idtwitter-still-a-wonderful-and-entertaining-place-to-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/idtwitter-still-a-wonderful-and-entertaining-place-to-learn\/2022\/11\/29\/","title":{"rendered":"#IDTwitter \u2014 Still a Wonderful and Entertaining Place to Learn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Twitter is much in the news recently, mostly for not-good reasons. Rather than rehash-tag (see what I did there?) its various struggles and controversies since the new owner took over, I’m going to let others cover that territory.<\/p>\n

Instead, I’d like to go in a different direction, and share how this site remains one of the most valuable tools for learning about ID — and other medical and not-so-medical news.<\/p>\n

It’s also a ton of fun. That is, if you’re careful, and know the rules,<\/em> which I’ll get to in a moment.<\/p>\n

First, here’s brief summary of how I figured out Twitter. I’m hopeful by sharing that you’ll consider joining. Plus, the more smart, engaged, and nice people we have on Twitter — people actively communicating about our fascinating field — the better it becomes.<\/p>\n

It began for me in 2009, shortly after the tech writer David Pogue wrote about Twitter in the New York Times<\/em><\/a>. He described a chaotic mess with essentially no rules — a place where you could crowdsource solutions to complex problems, or “entertain” people by sharing what you cooked for breakfast, or market your latest business idea, or link a piece of writing you found particularly profound, or show a puppy video that makes you gasp at the cuteness.<\/p>\n

Or, all of the above.<\/p>\n

But the best part of his piece was this comment:<\/p>\n

DON\u2019T KNOCK IT TILL YOU\u2019VE TRIED IT. Of course, this advice goes for anything in life. But listen: even my own masterful prose can\u2019t capture what you\u2019ll feel when you try Twitter. So try it. If you don\u2019t get any value from it, close the window and never come back; that\u2019s fine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a big Pogue fan, and with nothing to lose, I thought — why not? So I signed up. Then, after trying it for 10 minutes or so, and remaining utterly baffled, I then just ignored it completely — for the next 6 years.<\/em><\/p>\n

What changed?<\/p>\n

Several things, happening all around the same time. First, I noticed that both some of my younger colleagues — and especially the medical residents and ID fellows — could cite recently published or presented research I hadn’t yet heard. Where’d they get this cutting-edge information? They all said one place:\u00a0 Twitter.<\/p>\n

Here’s a recent example of a clinical trial published in JAMA<\/em> that totally would have been off my radar screen for quite a while without Twitter, posted by the invaluable account @ABsteward:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/ABsteward\/status\/1577318206993092610?s=20&t=avV7L4-RD1LpzYW9A3Yunw<\/p>\n

Second, one of my editors here at NEJM Journal Watch<\/em>, Kristin Kelley, expressed astonishment that I wasn’t promoting my own writing on Twitter. “Every writer does this,” she said, bluntly. Then she gave me a brief tutorial.<\/p>\n

Now I do it regularly. Example:<\/p>\n

\n

Mask and vaccine mandates? Check. Socializing and networking over meals and drinks? Check. Some thoughts about this uncomfortable paradox here.
Big In-Person Medical Meetings and Cognitive Dissonance for ID Docs https:\/\/t.co\/TnIz1Kgq2G<\/a> @PriyaNori<\/a><\/p>\n

— Paul Sax (@PaulSaxMD) October 17, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n