War is brewing on campus. Two professors fight a fervent battle, not for material gain, but for winning the allegiance of all Hillsdale students. Only one shall be victorious.
The Twitter war between Professor of Economics Gary Wolfram and Director of the Dow Journalism Program John Miller is not being waged on a typical battlefield. As per the nature of the online service, no blood shall be shed. Words will be used by each combatant to inspire as many people to follow them as possible before Nov. 1.
The prize for winning? Gloriously unabashed bragging rights.
“First of all, Gary Wolfram is a scoundrel and no one should follow him on Twitter,” Miller said.
The conflict arose from a conversation between the two late into the summer, during which Miller challenged his opponent to open combat. What followed wasn’t pleasant.
“I tweeted a few abusive notes about Gary,” Miller said.
Wolfram had started tweeting extensively to promote his book, “A Capitalist Manifesto.” Before long, he started to grow a sizable following on Twitter; enough to worry Miller that his twitter glory might be undermined.
“John Miller’s sort of a funny guy,” Wolfram said. “He sent out a tweet saying ‘Don’t follow Gary Wolfram,’ and all of a sudden, boom, I got like 150 more followers. So that developed into the challenge of seeing who could get the most by Nov. 1.”
Despite the additional followers that join his cause each day, Wolfram said that closing the gap between Miller and himself has been an arduous process.
At press time, Wolfram has recruited 1,063 followers while Miller has 1,161.
“He keeps staying a hundred ahead of me!” Wolfram laughed. “And I don’t know why. I’ll get five more and then he’ll get five more too. We’re in sort of a homeostasis.”
Miller said he ultimately attributes Wolfram’s lack of success to his lousy tweeting abilities.
Wolfram, on the other hand, said he believes he has a slight advantage over Miller because he is gaining publicity through his Economics 101 online course.
During the course, the two faculty members will have to declare a temporary truce when they conduct Q-and-As together on topics of the students’ choice. As such, both men will gain much needed publicity for their war.
“I think once this course gets online, Gary’s Twitter followers are going to grow and explode, potentially,” Miller said. “Especially if the college advertises, ‘Take his online course and follow him on Twitter.’”
The war has already produced several injurious tweets such as this one by Miller: “He asks a favor, then threatens homework. Sheesh!”
Students remain relatively divided on who their favorite is.
“Wolfram all the way. [His] ‘stache can take on anyone,” Senior Zach Haller said. “Gotta respect men with the mustaches.”
At the end of the day, though, Twitter is a useful tool for both men. Miller pointed out that twitter has gradually usurped the blogging sphere of the internet.
“I started doing it [Twitter] to figure out what all the fuss was about,” Miller said. “I started using it more because students are encouraging me to use it. I still feel like I’m not very fluent at it. I enjoy it as a resource.”
Wolfram expressed similar sentiments.
“I do like Twitter,” Wolfram said. “I mostly tweet about my columns so you can go right to it. You might not think to go to The Detroit News and then go to ‘opinion’, then to ‘politics’ to get where you want to go, so people who are interested can follow you.”
He did, however, lament the fact that in the grander scheme of things, he has a long journey before he becomes world famous.
“I did notice that Pink has 19 million followers, so John and I have a long way to go,” Wolfram said. “I was shooting for Lebron first. He’s only got 9 million.”
Despite the ongoing war, both Miller and Wolfram said they get along well with each other in more civilized circumstances.
“We’re just trying to man up, [winner] just gets bragging rights,” Wolfram said. “We don’t really get anything other than saying, ‘Hey, I beat ya.’ It’s fun.”
