Twitter has a position in science

The rapid movement of technology taking its place in the scientific world is amazing to me. Twitter is now taking a role in the world of science. Though I do not have a Twitter, I still find it very interesting that a networking site with "tweets" only 140 characters can have an impact in science. This article peaked my interest because science is the career path that I hope to follow. Also, Gareth Cook has been a great author that I followed this past summer in a school project. In the article I found it interesting that Cornell students were able to pull together a scientific study of the world's changing mood. By sorting through tweets from three years ago up until early last year, they were able to rate the positivity of the tweets and come to some observations from their research. In Gareth Cook's opinion piece "Science and Twitter #mixwell," Cook supports the emerging aid that Twitter has become to science with evidence.

Gareth Cook's main source of evidence in his opinion piece that wins over his audience is the example of Cornell students Scott Golder and Michael Macy. In the article, Cook writes about how Golder and Macy used over 509 million tweets and analyzed their positive levels of the words. With those analyses that were used as research, these sociologists were able to find the world's mood timeline, the day's emotional arc, and a reason for why depression is so common in the winter. Pretty interesting how those tweets provided answers to sociology questions and scientific data. Gareth Cook also writes about the Library of Congress's decision to make Twitter part of its enormous collection. To some people, this addition is outrageous, however Cook thinks it is a good move to include details about the generation's daily life. Cook's opinion about this is expressed when he says, "You cannot understand a time or a place if you do not understand how people actually experienced it," (Cook). That line shows Gareth Cook's agreement to add tweets to the Library of Congress. The Boston Globe's opinion piece "Science and Twitter #mixwell" by Gareth Cook proves that today's science is being improved on with the aid of Twitter.

Source: Cook, Gareth . "Science and Twitter #mixwell." The Boston Globe 1 Oct. 2011: n. pag. The Boston Globe. Web. 2 Oct. 2011.