Twitter and What I (Eventually) Found There

I think this is a good time to admit that I 1. Don't actually have a twitter and 2. Don't really know how it works. And before you ask, no, I am not doing this to try and "enhance" my quality of life like a technological vegan. Nor do I have some personal vendetta against the evils of social media. I am simply a lazy college student, pure and simple. So, as I was stumbling through different psychology accounts on twitter, I found some pretty interesting stuff that jumped out at me.

• @PsychNews was the first legitimate psychology account with real information. Surprisingly, most general psychology accounts on twitter are more horoscope-based than actual science-based. But this account discussed stories that mostly had to do with race or gender -- two huge topics that have been plastered all over social media for the past couple years. 

• However, @PsychologyNow followed stories that appeared to be more medical rather than the psychology of gender or race. For instance, there has been a lot of talk recently about mothers being screened for depression during their prenatal care since new studies have been released suggesting that postpartum depression can develop before birth.

• One really interesting story I found was tweeted by @PsychNews and was originally an article posted on BBC, "Do We Need More Than Two Genders?" Where different medical professionals came together in an interview to clarify that gender should not necessarily be seen as binary, but rather as a wide spectrum. Honestly, I love how the world is becoming more and more progressive, but honestly, I don't understand why we have to have labels and gender identities in the first place. Maybe that's just the idealist in me who also hopes to one day find my own Dr. McDreamy (Grey's Anatomy reference, I'm not crazy). 

AskMen Editors. "Patrick Dempsey." Via askmen.com. Licensed for noncommercial reuse.

The one and only, Dr. McDreamy/Patrick Dempsey/my future husband

• Another interesting story that I kept seeing pop up was the discussion about the screening for postpartum depression for moms during prenatal care. Tweeted by @PsychNews it was originally an article titled "Screening for Depression Recommended for Adults, Including Pregnant and Postpartum Women." According to the USPSTF, depression is one of the leading disabilities in teenagers and adults both and they've been pushing to get a mandatory screening for everyone over 18. But now they're narrowing their demands which would make it mandatory for pregnant women and new mothers to be screened for depression to help the mom stay in good health and protect the baby.

• Once I stopped being a grandma and actually figured out how to use twitter, it was hard at first to sift between the angsty feeds that were all about "finding your true soulmate with psychology" versus feeds that actually had an ounce of scientific standing. I was actually surprised to find so many feeds that had to do with social issues like race and gender (something my inner social justice warrior really appreciated).