Question: Do any of you have twitter? As an individual I simply love tweeting to my fellow twitter friends, and I think it would be a good way to spread awarness for cancer ?

Leo Garcia answered on 23 Jun 2010:

Yes – although I generally lurk on it, following lots of interesting people, rather than posting stuff myself.

Twitter is not necessarily the best medium for spreading awareness of ways of preventing cancer – although I would have thought it was a great medium for generating interest in, say, charity events, or interesting new articles. I follow New Scientist, Nature etc. who often post links to interesting articles, so I don’t see why that wouldn’t work with cancer-related material.

In terms of generating awareness for things like lifestyle choices that can reduce the risk of getting cancer, I would say that television spots, advertisements on public transport and so on, are a good idea. Still, it is great that you are thinking about ways of using new media, as we are still a way off using things like social networking to its full potential. Keep thinking along those lines and coming up with ways to use Twitter for good – I am sure that an idea will come to you in time.