“You can tell a lot about a person by reading their bio”: lessons from inauthentic Twitter accounts’ activity in #Edchat"

Abstract

There is an abundance of scholarship documenting educators’ uses of for-profit social media platforms for professional learning, but little is known about how inauthentic accounts affect those experiences. We studied 83 state-sponsored accounts’ interactions with the teacher-focused #Edchat hashtag by analyzing their profiles, profiles of accounts they retweeted, and tweets they shared. We found no patterns of overt state interference in #Edchat; however, state-sponsored accounts amplified other inauthentic accounts, such as those focused on commercial, spam, and self-promoting #Edchat messages. Most state accounts used formulaic methods to create relatable account profiles that may go unnoticed by educators using the hashtag. These findings raise questions for educators and researchers about disinformation, anonymity, attention-seeking, and information glut in social media environments polluted by inauthentic amplification.

Keywords:

• Social media
• mixed methods
• technology
• inservice professionals

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel G. Krutka

Daniel G. Krutka, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Social Studies Education in the College of Education at the University of North Texas. His research focuses on intersections of technology, democracy, and education. He hosts the Visions of Education podcast, you can find him on Twitter at @dankrutka, or email him at [email protected].

Spencer P. Greenhalgh

Spencer P. Greenhalgh, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Information Communication Technology in the University of Kentucky’s School of Information Science. He focuses his research on the affordances and implications of information communication technologies for teaching, learning, and other meaningful practices. Learn more at https://spencergreenhalgh.com.