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An interesting reflection on the slow implosion of Twitter, the cultivation of online community, and resources for fields like anthropology. “Should we all just jump ship and find new platforms? All this has me thinking, once again, about the need for not just making new spaces, but also holding and using the spaces we already have.”
https://anthrodendum.org/2022/12/18/holding-our-anthropological-spaces/
anthrodendum.org
Holding our anthropological spaces | anthro{dendum}
I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point the anthropological community that used to be online shifted mostly to Twitter and other platforms. Maybe this was around 2015-2017 or so?
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Twitter and other social media platforms allow the anthropology community to come together but as the article points out none of the existing social platforms really meet the needs of anthropologists or hold any great potential to move anthropology as a field forward – they were just the only options.
Mastodon is having a moment but the question the anthropology community can *now* ask itself is, what would a social media platform for anthropologists really look like, and where do micro-platforms fit into that equation? The author seems to suggest that a return to or evolution of traditional blog formats over micro-blogging is more suitable for the field, but that the now-defunct Open Anthropology Cooperative also held a lot of potential to serve as an alternative space to the Facebook’s and Twitter’s.
A 2019 survey conducted by graduate students of the applied anthropology program at the University of North Texas and sponsored by the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology found that the majority of members of anthropology organizations don’t feel like they are getting enough value from their memberships. The biggest areas with room for improvement? “…Networking was one of the greatest benefits that would lead participants to join a professional organization. This was followed by continuing education and professional development opportunities.”
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