One year ago, I wrote about my initial motivation to embark on this personal online science communication “experiment”. Working through all my self-doubt and posting-inconsistencies, here I am one year later having found an amazing online community through which I have had the chance to spread some science but, most importantly, I have learned quite a lot. I cannot cram up all these insightful lessons in one blog post without making it unbearably long – so for today, I’ll just ease you in on this topic by sharing WHY I chose to “waste my time” with this, and hopefully encourage you to make your move too!
For sure it takes a lot of time to go through my photography, edit, research, write a blog post, edit, write social media posts, edit, share, respond…and so on. Oh, and be happy about them before sharing, of course – it takes a while. This is not my main job or studies either. But not only do I really enjoy doing it, I also don’t think this is a waste of time – at all!
I have benefitted so much from science on a personal level. Photography has taught me to see the world differently, and science has helped me in comprehending it. This deepened understanding has made me appreciate the intrinsic value everything has, and I believe it can do the same for you! But some experiences that we, scientists, have access to (like extracting DNA or determining the sex of crocodiles in the field) are not accessible to just anybody. What if somebody does want to know about it, at least on their Sunday morning coffee readings? Most people won’t turn to scientific papers, that’s for sure.
SciComm Deficiency
It is no secret that Science has faced a Public Relations problem for a long time. The internet has come to make it all worse – and better. The amount of misinformation and pseudoscientific marketing (and politics) has shown to have no limits, and scientific information has been ridiculously bent for personal gain over and over. That’s not what science is about. But the amount of time people spend on social media and looking up stuff on the Internet is something we can also take advantage of. Basically, we can all help make the internet more educational and less “bullshitty”.
The public understanding of science is not just for fun (although yes, science is fun!), but public understanding of science is necessary for democracy – how else are we to make results-oriented, evidence-based decisions on public health, land tenure and food production, water quality and availability, and climate change? To name a few.
No, I don’t hate journalists
For a very long time, we’ve let Journalists take the wheel. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a personal rant against journalists, but there is one major flaw in that scheme (and a very important lesson for scientists and SciComm). Scientists – with usually poor communication skills towards non-scientists – expect a journalist that comes interview them for an hour, or less, to fully understand the topic which they have been studying for years, and translate it into an entertaining article for the public with no flaws, no missing details, and a world-changing pop-publication. Crazy, right? Scientists forget that some time ago, we, too, knew nothing. We, too, had someone or something to learn from – and it takes time. The first lesson is this (and I paraphrase from a famous quote): if we don’t tell our stories and our science ourselves, someone else will, and they will get it wrong or bend it to taste.
But scientists already have a lot on their plate!
As you can read on the first post I ever published here, I thought about this webpage for years before I had the courage to just do it. Here’s the thing that always stopped me: “no scientist would waste their time on that”. That is a phrase I heard a former professor mention at least once – but it carved itself deep in my thoughts. I did not feel good about it, but I did not know why at that moment. It didn’t make sense to me. I did not agree, but then I did not want to be taken as “less of a scientist”.
I understand the problem of having the job of “communicators” added on top of the myriad of things scientists are required to do already. Sure, it is exhausting to even think about it. After all, scientists are not only researchers (which is already a lot), but also have the roles of mentors, professors, administrators, managers, accountants, tour guides…etc. But then we are always complaining when a journalist publishes something wildly misinterpreted or just plain wrong. It seems we’ve enough time to complain after some damage has been done, but not to contribute beforehand. It’s not so common for scientists to be that short-sighted, but we keep failing when it comes to SciComm.
This brings me to the next lesson, which is more of a life lesson I should have learned a long time ago: do what feels right for you. DO IT. It should go without saying that one must not go blindly at it. We must inform ourselves well about the situation and form our own view – do not just “do what feels right” from an uninformed position. And once you’re not blindly putting your hands over the fire, don’t sit too much on it and just do it. Especially don’t pay attention to older-gen outdated opinions on “how science should be done”. Remember that a while ago scientific experiments were highly unethical if judged by current standards – things change! The way we communicate science must change too.
Blogging as a requirement?
I know scientists have a lot on their plate already, and I don’t think that “every scientist should have a blog”. No, that’s not what I’m saying. Without some joy and passion for this, you will not do it nicely and will probably have a bad time with it. But it is in our interest to communicate what we do and, given that most science is publicly funded, it is within our responsibility as well. There are outlets, there are scientists that are communicators, there are others just starting (like braeuNERD here) where you can also have a platform to, every now and then, tell us about that awesome science you’re doing and why it matters aimed to people outside your academic circles. I would love to help you spread your science!
Besides the individual drive to do this, there is for sure a lack of incentives for SciComm within Academic institutions. That’s where we could start as institutions. Science Communication degrees are a novelty in some countries (and non-existent in the others), but this world cannot wait for you to go get a degree. WE NEED YOU NOW! (But by all means, go for it if it is what you want!)
“But we now have Open Access”
But Open Access is not for the public – that benefits mostly scientists. The Information Deficit Model is a thing of the past – access to information has not solved the problem around scientific literacy. Think about the economic value of things people do for leisure. It’s all about entertainment! People have been entertained and inspired into action through movies, books, stories. It should be the same through (good) science communication.
Plus, it’s good for you.
One thing is getting into Communications Theory or Social Psychology Theory, but another different thing is to be good at putting it all to practice. Most scientists are good at academic writing. Creative writing is something else. Frankly, academic writing does not exclude – and even benefits from – creative writing. One year of blogging about science has not only put one more Science page on the WWW, but it has also helped me personally in improving my writing, translation, and creative skills, as well as combat the thesis-writers-block. So that’s an extra purely personal benefit out of this. And I’ve had fun, which is priceless.
If online SciComm (blogging, vlogging, SM, podcasting) is something you enjoy and makes you happy, then my best advice is to just do it! Don’t sit on it for years the way I did, WE NEED YOU NOW! Science needs you now. Whether you like it or not, the World Wide Web and Social Media are here to stay – let’s Science them up!
Like I said before, I had this idea on my mind for years shapeshifting and procrastinating, afraid of “what will the scientific community think about me “wasting my time” like that?” But not only have I found an amazingly supportive online community throughout this past year – I’ve also learned to identify and let go of outdated opinions when this world needs knowledge and action now more than ever. I was recently thinking about my applications for a PhD position later this year (hopefully), to which I asked my partner: “do you think having this blog and social media for SciComm can be damaging to my application? Like maybe it is perceived as if I don’t take science seriously or something?” To which he replied, with a weird look on his face: “It shouldn’t. And if it’s like that, why would you want to be a part of that Institution?”
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