While I considered attending both events, I went to neither but found that twitter provided much of the excitement of attending without shelling out the dough to do so. The only reason that was possible though was because there were a dedicated group of individuals at both convention and conference that were tweeting about the goings on at each. So, while I haven’t heard a single panel or attended a paper talk, I got to experience and comment on some cool new things happening in both areas.
I really enjoy comic conventions but they always a mix of awesome and horrible. Awesome to see comics creators, look at or wear cosplay, and buy exclusive art. Horrible to be in crowds, the price of food, and the lack of places to sit when you are tired. So I’ve “been” to a few comic cons now using twitter, following friends or creators through their attendance. And it’s been great, I get a cross section of the panels that were highlighted, see great cosplay of characters , and see the great commissions and prints that people pick up along the way. This of course doesn’t replace the feeling of actually being there and getting a duck-face selfie with a favorite writer but it’s a more relaxing and cheaper way to stay involved with the comics community.
I had become accustomed to this with comics conventions but this was the first time that I used twitter to "attend" a major archaeological conference. I went to and presented at three conferences within the last year so the idea of another seemed absurd. So I vicariously attended by following a great group of archaeologists who tweet and following the #saa2016.
Although it doesn’t replace being there and getting to share a beer and talk about the moon, it did give me a great way of interacting with new archaeological research and issues in archaeology. And in some ways, it was better than attending the actual conference. I got to see tweets about a lot of new research and examine how the archaeologists I followed absorbed those talks. It also highlighted some interesting things about archaeologists on twitter. Namely, the ones who use it to livetweet are also the ones who care about many of the same things I do: education, ethics, digital mediums, and preservation in archaeology.
It was awesome to see so many people interested in changing the culture of the field talking with each other and collaborating via Twitter. It also made me realize how rich the SAAs could be if more archaeologists collaborated via this social media platform. It is a very easy way to get research into the public sphere, which is part of the mission of archaeology, and allows direct discussion amongst peers in a relaxed environment. I have many classmates who have twitter accounts but few of them use it to share their research and conference experiences. Maybe it’s not important to them that their research gets this sort of press but it does tend to skew the social media, twitter-sphere, of archaeology to those already interested in digital mediums rather than representing a true cross section of the discipline.
That self-selection both in comics and in archaeology makes me wonder what I missed from the two cons but it gave me a great chance to experience both without leaving my home. While it would have been better to attend one or the other, seeing the other on twitter, their representation in social media is important to keep those who can't attend informed and use it as public outreach.
