Using Twitter as a community for researcher mental health - a workshop

The deteriorating mental health and wellbeing of researchers has been well documented in both the academic literature and the media. A common thread to the experiences of those suffering within the academic system is a series of toxic cultural practices that often occur in silence. Although there has been much negative coverage about the effects of social media, some platforms –in particular, Twitter – have emerged as a key window into the both positive and negative experiences of researcher mental health stakeholders. A plethora of bottom-up initiatives have utilised Twitter to facilitate themed dialogue on the interaction of academia and mental health, such as @AcademicChatter, @PhdVoice, and @hapy_researchers. Additionally, such accounts strategically apply relevant hashtags to communicate notable themes of interest, especially #AcademicMentalHealth. Despite an abundance of Twitter research in other domains, little research nor practical training regarding the optimal usage of Twitter for researcher mental has yet been formulated.