So what on earth would Baly make of Twitter? Why should we take Twitter seriously? It’s interesting, up-to-date, surprising, diverse, and humorous—sometimes several of these at the same time—and, by the way, the spelling is horrible.
I would venture that the qualities I mention here make Twitter an ideal source of cultural information. I have no idea how well Twitter is being archived; it’s only six years old, and it may be too soon to say. But I have no doubt that future nursing historians will find it very useful, apart from the spelling mistakes and the errors that come from repetition. In Part Two of this post, to follow a few days from now, I focus on a case in point, a Florence Nightingale quote.
Alex’s top five Florence Nightingale tweets
Admittedly, I had rather too much time on my hands while ill last week. Trawling through old tweets, I collected a medley of them to illustrate my point.
Tweet 1: I actually found out something new about Florence Nightingale, thanks to a tweet posted by @mryap with a link to a video about Florence Nightingale’s important contribution to statistics. At 1:03 on the video, you can see some basic statistical tables drawn up by Florence as a 9-year-old child. It’s enlightening to see this early evidence of what became one of Nightingale’s most important achievements, the pioneering of data visualization.
Tweet 2: I find Twitter endlessly fascinating for the insights the medium’s users provide into the evolving gender politics of nursing. The tweet by @overmanlymurse—“Florence Nightingale? Never heard if [sic] him”—uses humor to pose an interesting question about the relevance of Nightingale to the new breed of male nurses who identify themselves as “murses.”
Tweet 3: I am a student of images of Florence Nightingale, so I was surprised to discover an entirely new category of image—Florence Nightingale tattoos—in a tweet received by @Tatted_Nurse. For your information, the tattoo image is based on the 1856 photograph of Nightingale that was commissioned by Queen Victoria after the former’s return from the Crimean War.
Tweet 4: I had previously read about the so-called Florence Nightingale-Mary Seacole controversy (the Twitter link is to Seacole’s online autobiography), but reading tweets convinced me that the controversy is something like a Punch and Judy show, where two personalities are made to fight for the amusement of the crowd. This cartoon by Kate Beaton, @beatonna on Twitter, perfectly captures the essence of a Punch and Judy show, while utterly failing to represent historical facts. If Twitter comments are anything to judge by, nurses do not view the controversy as a big deal. Neither do I. For the record, I made a donation to the Seacole statue appeal years ago, and I see no conflict inherent in celebrating the achievements of both women.
Tweet 5: Finally, I end with a charming anagram of Florence Nightingale, tweeted by @zeniusenglish, a language school in Jakarta. Instead of highlighting a tweet on Nightingale in German, Spanish or Japanese, which are among the most popular languages in which to tweet Nightingale (so far as I can tell), I have chosen a tweet in Indonesian, which shows that Florence Nightingale represents not just the English nation, but the English language as a whole to the non-English speaking world. Oh, and here is the anagram: “flit on cheering angel.”
You can find the original tweets among the "favorites” on my Twitter profile at @alexattewell. And remember to watch for Part Two of "Tweeting Nightingale," coming soon!
For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.
