The Final Twitter Update

Well here is the last Twitter update for you all! Oh how we've come a long way from the beginning of the quarter until today. This final week of Twitter posts consisted of following 10 new accounts, 10 peer retweets, and posting 10 tweets of our own (5 of which consisted of what we learned throughout the course and 5 more of excerpts form our Advocacy Essay). I spent this week retweeting not only about my own species, but I tried to expand my knowledge about other urging matters as well. There were some posts about dog consumption, dolphin captivity, and the effect of ocean noise pollution on whales. I did this because I realized I should be more aware about other issues that animals face in order to be a good advocate for them as much as I have for elephant poaching. I followed accounts that encompassed a variety of wildlife animals and the crimes that are committed against (@WWF_WLCrime and @UCAdvocacy) them and I even followed some accounts that related to my major, which is Public Health Sciences (@CAPublicHealth). I also tweeted about how appreciative I am of peer reviews and how much that has contributed to the improvement of my writing. Without these constructive criticism tips on my writing, I wouldn't have caught my mistakes and I would not have learned from them.

As I look back at my previous use of social media before this course, I have realized that media rarely ever speaks out about animal research and rights. I personally have not seen anything on mainstream media about endangered species and especially about elephant poaching. Spending so much of this quarter on social media that focused on animals has been extremely eye-opening and educated me on matters that I had been oblivious to. I am grateful that we have been given the opportunity to use this platform to advocate for animals and their rights, as well as using it as a learning platform. Typically, I used social media for entertainment and keeping up to date with the news but I never thought of using it for research. It also allowed me to connect to my peers on a more casual and personal level, instead of it being all formal through peer writing. I'll admit, when the quarter began and I was aware that we had to have a Twitter account dedicated to the topic of animal science and research, I thought "What for?". I didn't really see the purpose of it and thought it was busy work, but as the quarter progressed, it served as a tool for me to find sources of information on elephant intelligence, cognition, and poaching. I was also slightly intimidated to speak up, considering I usually never tweet on my personal Twitter account. However the more I spent my time on there, the more I got the hang of it and became more confident and I found my voice. Twitter also gave me a platform to educate my peers and the public on ethics. If at least one person saw my tweets and felt connected, I will be happy knowing that I had that kind of influence on them.

The Writing 39C community has been a great community to work with, as they have such an open mind and contribute to my learning experience by offering me new perspectives on situations. I have found that this quarter I have never been more exposed to this much information all at once in my life and allowed me to rethink the choices that I have made in my life. Do I want to cut out eating animal based products after hearing about the suffering they go through? Should I be going to zoos, aquariums, or any animal park?