On Twitter, I am active in two Twitter communities: the medical community and the writing community.
The hashtags which represent the medical community can be broad (ex. #medtwitter and #physician), disease-focused, (ex. #obesity and #diabetes), conference or institution focused (ex. #AAFP and #harvardmedicalschool), or issue-focused, (ex. #WIMStrongerTogether).
There are fewer hashtags representing the writing community, but some of the better-known ones are #writingcommunity, #writerscafe, and #writerslife.
Now, after years of engaging with these two different communities via Twitter, here’s one thing I can say definitively:
The Twitter writing communities are a lot friendlier, kinder, and more joyful than the Twitter medical communities.
That’s somewhat odd when you think about it. After all, aren’t people who have devoted their lives to medicine, who have delivered babies, diagnosed cancer, saved lives, and worked in hospice going to lean towards empathy for the human condition?
Perhaps, but it certainly isn’t reflected in their Twitter presence.
Much of what I see on medical Twitter is an undercurrent of anger and frustration, and I am wary of engaging with many of the people in this space. One wrong word, one wrong phrase— a “they are” instead of a “they have”—and the medical community’s digital bullies will appear out of thin air, attacking like rabid dogs. (Note: There are exceptions to this rule—there are physicians on Twitter who are mission-focused and joyful in their pursuit of this. These are the ones I engage with on Twitter.)
Whereas in the writing community most of what I see online is about joy. Sure, there is some frustration—“I have writer’s block”, “my book got rejected,” “I can’t afford the conference!”—but overall, the undercurrent of the writing community is one of creativity and of joy.
So, in practice, what does this mean for me?
It means that I have a “Twitter-choice” between anger and joy. And I select the latter.