Communicating magnificence science successfully is so essential, and plenty of scientists don’t fairly recognize or perceive how tough it’s to battle misinformation on-line. “I feel in science there has all the time been this sense that for those who get the science right, your job is finished,” Dr. Wong explains. “But that is not going to assist on this social media panorama the place persons are pushing misinformation and utilizing each software at their disposal, really, for shock worth.”Combating Misinformation Takes Specific SkillsIndeed, the standard starvation for a greater understanding of magnificence merchandise in some methods invitations misinformation. Bad recommendation is rampant throughout social media and on-line boards. For many individuals, Dr. Wong is their go-to professional (whether or not they know her in individual, on-line, or parasocially) to deconstruct these myths. “Rather a lot of the time I’ll get tagged in reels or individuals will ship me reels with misinformation,” she says.Even only a few years in the past, Dr. Wong would have been alone in correcting this data. Now? “These days, half the time once I go to it, there’s already somebody correcting the reel in the credit. It’s so good to see, in contrast to, I do not know, 5 years in the past, once I felt very alone.”The excellent news is that there are increasingly more science communicators throughout social media. Rather than see them as competitors, Dr. Wong desires to assist them succeed. It’s half of why she began Beauty Scicomm together with magnificence scientist Jen Novakovich. Of course, speaking magnificence science successfully is the aim, however additionally they need to construct up different creators. “We need to create a bit of a group so we may also help different science communicators on magnificence get began and get established extra simply,” she explains.Really, the key to Dr. Wong’s success, and the purpose so many individuals go to her with their magnificence science questions, is that she’s asking sensible questions and offering solutions in a means that’s by no means condescending. Beauty science is tough, with lots of structural boundaries that make it tough to talk about authoritatively. But Dr. Wong has overcome these challenges and constructed a profitable enterprise round science communication, all whereas inspiring a brand new technology to go to faculty and turn into magnificence scientists themselves.
https://www.wired.com/story/women-in-science-michelle-wong/