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Social media and science in India

I created a Twitter account and became a regular user of Facebook in my first year of PhD. Yes, exactly the time when you be over confident and think that people are interested in your crap. Or at least I thought that way. Or atleast that's what my Facebook memories tell me. I, being the regular over-enthusiastic first year who believed that she could be "future Nobel prize laureate", setup my Twitter handle as @NaziaPCL, where PCL stands for Protein Crystallography Laboratory, which evidently was the name of my doctoral lab. And if I am not mistaken, also my password for a computer login.

On Facebook, as per my memories, I posted about getting bored, my protein eluting rather slowly and of course, my Farmville updates. On the other hand, I didn't tweet much. A couple of dumb tweets, like, "Tweet!". Though I kind of stayed active on Facebook ever since, the Twitter craze lasted exactly one day.

Facebook for me has always been a very personal space. I do voice my political opinions to a select audience and do post a public post every now and then. But  Twitter, I believe, is more of a public platform which can bring a lot of conversations onto a global table.

A few months ago, I kind of got back on my Twitter account again after a hiatus when I learnt this hack that tweeting to service providers led to quicker and more efficient customer care. The hack did work for me. And then I discovered that Twitter was actually a great medium to know a lot about a lot of things. Rather a lot about how people function across the globe and across various professions.  There are actually accounts of real, kick-ass scientists and laboratories, mostly from Europe and the US, tweeting away!

But unfortunately I don't see a very active Indian science scene on this platform. Either this or maybe I am just not good at looking up for accounts. I would love to follow to some great Indian science or scientist accounts. Suggestions are actively soughted!

I too have not made my Twitter account pretty or pleasing or even 'human-operated'-like. My profile picture has changed from an 'egg' to a 'human silhouette' over the years. I am still learning the nitty-gritty of the platform. I am still not sure how useful and powerful a tool Twitter, or for that matter, any social media platform is for science. I know they have huge influences and consequences on the politics of a country. Maybe someone can throw some light on this! And then maybe, just maybe, I might consider updating my profile picture from a grey human to something more delectable.

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