Academic makes Twitter splash with ‘ Nein’

Former Ivy League professor of German Eric Jarosinski’s Twitter feed has over 90,000 followers

Former Ivy League professor of German Eric Jarosinski seemed an unlikely Twitter phenomenon in the making, at least on paper. When he wasn’t teaching his students in the US, he was trying to write a book on transparency as a political metaphor in postWall Germany.

He readily admits he was averse to the Internet, it meant having to deal with an avalanche of work emails and he was “never the type” to sit at home reading blogs, the 43- yearold said.

Then two- and- a- half years ago a friend introduced him to Twitter. It sparked what he calls his “little experiment”, probing life’s complexities in his Twitter feed @ NeinQuarterly in a style that is ironic, melancholic, funny or intriguing in up to 140 characters. “Youth. Wasted on the wrong demographic,” reads one. “A gentle reminder that today was just a symptom. We’re the problem,” reads another.

Written in German and/ or English from his smartphone, Mr Jarosinski has struck a chord among users of a form of social media often derided for being overindulgent in tracking the minutiae of everyday life. His Twitter feed, which he dubs “A Compendium of Utopian Negation”, has more than 90,000 followers in an estimated 100 coun- tries and a weekly column in the prestigious German Die Zeit newspaper. Much of the effect comes from his avatar, a formidable cartoon image of German philosopher and social critic Theodor W. Adorno wearing a monocle with a stern “Nein” ( No) written below his face. “What I’m interested in is taking the authority that’s there in that face, in the words and undercutting it at the same time, but trying to undercut it in a kind of playful and thought- provoking way,” Mr Jarosinski told AFP.