BlueSky: a new social media community for educational psychology
The atmosphere and culture of Twitter (now ‘X’) has deteriorated since Elon Musk took over the platform, even more so in recent weeks. We know much of our community has had enough. Come and join us on BlueSky @edpsy.bsky.social and (for now) #edpsychs.
Moving to a new platform is scary. We have a large and engaged community on Twitter, and ‘starting again’ can feel like a big hill to climb. Nonetheless we think this is the right thing to do. Also…new things can be exciting!
We’ve created a BlueSky starter pack which makes joining even easier. If you don’t have a Bluesky account yet, you can join via our starter pack and get started with 50 members of the EP community to follow. If you’re already on Bluesky you can also use our starter pack to add to your experience!
Why we’re making the move to BlueSky
It’s been a sad thing to watch, but Twitter (we’re never going to call it ‘X’) has, in our view, been in sharp decline since Elon Musk purchased the platform.
Many users, particularly those from minoritised groups, have seen their online experiences get markedly worse. Unsurprising then that analysis has demonstrated that hate speech has surged on the platform.
Anyone familiar with the platform will have experienced an almost non-existent moderation policy. An example from this week, where a tweet had the N-word repeated more than 20 times, was found not to violate any content moderation policies. Again, unsurprising since Twitter’s ‘Trust and Safety’ department was all but axed.
Under Musk’s ownership, the platform has enabled and amplified the far-right, and racism and transphobia are rampant. The last week has seen Musk share islamophobic content, conspiracy, and fake news (….again).
What this move looks like: a hopeful change
While we’re in a period of transition, we’ll still be posting to Twitter to share our blogs, events, job adverts and engage with the community there.
We’re doing this however with the goal of our primary social media home becoming BlueSky and explicitly encouraging others to join us there.
We’re also hoping that other professional organisations can take a values-led stance and come with us.
From our reading of BlueSky’s moderation approach, there is much greater control over what you see, and we’ll continue to learn as we go.
Where else you can find us
If Twitter isn’t for you, and you’re not up for BlueSky, you can connect with us is lots of ways:
- Follow our LinkedIn page
- Like and follow us on Facebook
- Sign up to our email list
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