From Academia to Social Media

   What are professors like outside of their careers? Normally, some insight can be gathered through social media networks.

  

  Dr. Brad Paden is a professor in mechanical engineering at UC Santa Barbara. He is not very involved on social media as he was only on LinkedIn. In fact, some of the authors who were a part of this article aren't on any social media at all. 

  

  The author, much like my interviewees, has a very simple social media presence. The degrees he earned and that universities that he graduated from are all listed out as a part of the 'summary' of Dr. Paden. The section then goes on to describe his current position as a professor at UCSB. 

  After his profession, his research and awards are described in brief. All of the 'skills' that he has are implied with his position. Dr. Paden's recommendations are simply 'thank you's to all of the important individuals that he has interacted with. 

    The best way to describe his presence on social media is just to say that he is on there. There is nothing on there that you couldn't find out from reading his professional page from UC Santa Barbara. You can tell that he is a scientist because of how simple and direct his feed is. 

Patterson, Blake. "BASIC Week at RetroBattlestations (reddit)" 09/13/2013 via flickr
Attribution 2.0 Generic

    Dr. Paden's publication on frequency estimation error is highly scientific and professional. The publication uses mathematical terms and concepts to describe the experiment conducted. The article is very straightforward and doesn't use many descriptive words. An example of this can be found in the magnetic coupling section. 

   Certainly, Dr. Paden's LinkedIn page uses more colloquialism than his publications do. Phrases such as 'thank you' and 'great' all add to the more personal side of his social network. Then again, a scientific report and a social media page are bound to be different. 

    However, when we look at the personality/voice that Dr. Paden writes in, it is very similar between the two. He is direct and to-the-point in the information that he provides about himself. Not only that, but he is also direct in his 'thank you's to his colleagues. This directness can be seen in his professional publications as well.