Sharing Our Successes and Failures

This week I have been reflecting on how academics in different positions at different institutions across the world share their successes and failures. Last week was the traditional start date for a lot of academic teaching and tenure positions so Twitter was full of "I am pleased to announce" tweets. Some folk were saying how much hope it gives them to see folk they know and whose work they appreciate so much being acknowledged in that way. Others, who are graduate students, post-docs, adjuncts, or early career researchers who have been on the market a long time mentioned how they had literally muted the string "I am pleased to announce" and honestly I think that is a really good self care strategy.

I contemplated this a bit on Twitter late last week in terms of maybe needing to be better at being promo person about the work I publish, the podcasts I do, the workshops I facilitate, and the general academic type things I do. But I always have this trepidation about doing that because I want to use my Twitter to support, to amplify folks, and share resources that may be useful. I worry about taking up space with my own stuff. Basically the only thing I promo on the regular is my weekly blog post in the hopes that something that I have written may resonate with others. So this post is going to be a bit different.

Last week a thing happened that I didn't promo on Twitter because honestly I didn't know how I feel about it (I still don't) and it occurred to me that maybe this would be a good place to work those thoughts out and to see what others think. So I was named one of the 30 Higher Education IT Influencers to follow in 2022. I only shared this with 7 close colleagues at work via Teams and about 4 close friends via Twitter DM, and my mom, that's it. Why? Well part of it is the taking up space thing because I really didn't want to considering all the shite that is going on the world that is way way more important than this. But also because I am still very leery about how this was determined. No one from EdTech Magazine contacted me before this happened, they only emailed me congratulating me after the page was up. No one asked me if they could use my picture which they scraped off my Twitter, no one asked me if I wanted my LinkedIn and blog promoed,(FYI I now have to spend my time declining Twitter and LinkedIn requests from edtech companies that do super unethical work). And also they also very surface level seemed to get what I do, but not really. I mean yes I guess yelling at academics to add alt texts to their tweets at conferences could be considered IT, but is it? A friend of mine responded not knowing what I was having deep thoughts about with "Just say thanks, Ann." And yes, thanks, but also hi I would like to know your methodology. They asked me to send them a few second video being excited about being on the list with paraphernalia from my university. Also no. My university is the last place that needs more promo, and certainly not from me.

If you note that I care about ethics and accessibility I think it would be important for this criteria to open for people to see. So I guess I didn't share because I felt icky and unethical. I also had a great conversation with Chris Friend the other day where we talked about how maybe my tweets and blogs could be seen as a bit "buzzkill" to some and yes I am the Sara Ahmedian feminist killjoy that lives in the inaccessible ghosts in the machine, but honestly this really means a lot to me. I have said no or ignored a lot of different asks I get in my personal inbox lately because they really had my ethics spidey sense tingling. I have a group who keeps emailing me for the last year asking me to syndicate my blog. Like do I look like PerezHilton or LaineyGossip to you?

Folk on social media are often really good at letting people know a hundred times when they get an award, or publish an article, or are mentioned anywhere, even if it is literally three words; they are really good at sharing their successes. Some are also good at sharing their failures, like when they didn't get a grant and the feedback they received to help support others who may be working on a proposal. To me this particular personal "success" also feels a lot like a failure the more I think about it; a failure of ethical communication, a failure of respectfully speaking to the person to get approval. I guess the IT and security people on here will say hey, if your stuff is on the internet it is not private and anyone can do anything with it including sharing it on a list. And this is where I ask the academic integrity people to chime in too I guess, because really? So this week I would like your feedback on this. Has something similar to this happened to you? Is this step one to fake and predatory journals listing me as their editor? Yes I am a buzzkill, but you probably wouldn't be reading if I wasn't.