![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Digital-World.jpeg\")
\nDuring last year, I found myself drawn to attend several workshops run by the research education and development team at my university. They had topics such as blogging and developing a digital profile. My interests sprang from a desire to get my research and writing on girl internees in Changi during World War II \u2013 and my wider interests in the editing and publishing worlds \u2013 out into the wider world.<\/p>\n
However, I kept coming up against an existential blockage: what sort of \u2018me\u2019 did I want to be when I\u2019m out there in the digital world? And who did I want to connect with? Who did I want to share my work, words and thoughts with?<\/span><\/p>\n Who \u2018I\u2019 am in the digital world had been a fraught question for me \u2013 because \u2018I\u2019 contain many selves. Apart from being a (part-time, mature-age) PhD researcher doing a non-traditional style of PhD, I\u2019m also an editor running a freelance business, a published author (for both young people and adult readers) and a family member\/friend\/local community member.<\/p>\n For a long time, I tried to take the marketing approach of segmenting your audience. That is, I worked to develop a different \u2018voice and channel\u2019 tactic to reach out \u00a0to different groups of people and organisations. However, most of the time that just lead to a form of textual shutdown. Was I writing to reach out to clients? Or members of the academic world? Young people who might want to read my work? Adults who might want to publish it? This pre-considered thinking made it all too tough to write. I didn\u2019t write or participate anywhere, because I spent so much time being caught in an analysis loop.<\/p>\n What worked for me is when I started to think less about who I wanted to reach, and more about what communities I was a member of and what I had to offer. In other words, I stopped thinking about what the digital world could bring to me, and more about what I could offer the communities that resided in those spaces.<\/p>\n My digital communities swirl around each other. I gravitate towards discussions about doing a PhD, writing and publishing, children\u2019s and young adult literature, and editing. Sometimes, these worlds overlap, especially the writing and PhD worlds. The discussions that take place in these spaces revolve around topics such as strategies on getting the work done, balancing research, paid work and family life, upcoming conferences and opportunities, and general support.<\/p>\n Who I am in these communities is an extension of the kind of academic\/writer I want to be. This is a mixture of my personality, preferred mode of working and who I am inspired by. I aim to be warm, encouraging, generous with my knowledge and vulnerable. These working traits \u2013 while some of them simply are just an extension of who I am IRL \u2013 are ones that I\u2019ve carried over from my extensive editing career. Editing and publishing are collaborative work spaces \u2013 nothing is produced without the input of an entire team that bring their unique skills to a project. Long-term success as an editor \u2013 and especially as a freelancer \u2013 is dependent on building good working relationships as well as doing high-quality works. So, it is within the digital academic communities I belong to: the focus is getting the work done and getting it out there while being supported and nurtured as you do it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a highly text-based person, so I look mostly to Twitter and Facebook for my communities. Other visual- and video-based social media spaces \u2013 like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok\u00a0 \u2013 are also useful spaces to browse. Here are some hashtags,\u00a0 Twitter handles and moderated groups that I\u2019ve found welcoming and useful:<\/p>\n @WriteThatPhD<\/p>\n @PhDForum<\/p>\nWhy is being a digital \u2018me\u2019 such a complex question?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Who do I want to connect with? Who do I want to share my work, words and thoughts with?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n\n
\n PhD support and conversations about how to get it done<\/td>\n #phdlife#phdchat<\/p>\n