Deborah Lupton discusses her research into academics' use of social media. Her survey found that Twitter, LinkedIn and Academia.edu are the most commonly used, while Twitter is considered the most useful. Benefits include networking, sharing resources, and professional support, while drawbacks include loss of privacy and negative attitudes. She explores implications such as changes to academic identities, work practices, and the influence of metrics and commercialization on higher education. More research is still needed, especially ethnographic studies of academics' social media practices.

1. D E B O R A H L U P T O N , F A C U L T Y O F A R T S &
D E S I G N , U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A N B E R R A
Sociological sensibility and the
politics of digital engagement

2. Digital media & tools I have used
 Personal blog (‘This Sociological Life’)
 Twitter (@DALupton)
 Pinterest
 University e-repository
 LinkedIn, Academia.edu, ResearchGate
 Scoop.it, Bundlr, Delicious, Pearltrees
 Facebook
 Google Scholar (personal profile)
 Wikipedia
 Storify
 YouTube & podcasts
 SlideShare
 Prismatic
 Mendeley

3. My online survey: what social media do academics use for
professional purposes?
 90% Twitter
 60 % LinkedIn
 49% Academia.edu
 42% Facebook
 33% ResearchGate
 32% personal blog
 25% YouTube

4. My survey: what do academics find most useful?
 83% Twitter
 23% Academia.edu
 16% personal blog
 14% Facebook
 14% LinkedIn
 11% online referencing tools
 10% YouTube

5. My survey: benefits of social media use
 Connecting/networking:
- serendipitous connections
- wide & global scale of networks
- horizontal networks
 Sharing resources
 Enhancing teaching
 Communicating with research participants
 Keeping up-to-date with new publications, events
 Professional support for ECRs & postgrads
 Self-promotion

6. My survey: drawbacks to using social media
 Possibility of exposure/ threats to reputation
 Need to be careful what you say to keep/get an
academic job
 Loss of privacy
 Blurring of personal/professional boundaries
 Time constraints
 Becoming a target
 Ideas stolen
 Too much self-promotion by others
 Other academics’ negative attitudes to SM use

7. Implications for academics
 The digital configuration of academic identities
 Practices of professional self-formation
 Changes to work practices – research & teaching

8. Implications for academics
 Metric assemblages (Burrows)
 Audit culture (Holmwood)
 Neoliberalism & commercialisation of higher ed
 Hidden injuries of time pressures (Gill)
 Gaming academic performance: winners & losers

9. Implications for academics
 The open source academic (Carrigan) – thinking
aloud in public
 Performative scholarship (Hall)
 The academic gift economy – participatory
democracy (Hall)
 Digital public engagement as activism

10. Where to from here?
 More research!
 Specifically …. ethnographies of practice
 Interviews & observations of both academic users
and non-users