A student, posed with the essay prompt “find an issue concerning identity, writing, and rhetoric in ways that warrant further research,” chose to tweet her assignment in a live stream-style format. Her piece starts on the topic of privilege. It quickly evolves to focus in on the relationship between privilege, social media, voluntourism, and the portrayal of the developing world by those not from it, specifically voluntourists.

Her project has received minimal attention despite it’s brilliant use of today’s most prolific publishing format, Twitter. The reflexive use of a publishing medium, to criticize that medium itself, is not new. However, it has rarely been done which such fluidity and thoughtfulness. Strategic retweets, including that of one of my pieces on the topic of volunteer travel and privilege, gives the Twitter feed an organic feel that casts the reader as an active player in the discussion.

Meant to be read from the bottom up, the essay itself is not more than a few hundred characters. Brevity is, in this case, an asset. I highly recommend reading the feed, sharing the twitter account, and circulating both. While little is known of the author behind the handle @1stwrldwhtgirl, I find her skillful use of social media to start a conversation on the interplay between privilege and social media fascinating.