On using social media

Over at Civil War Memory, Kevin Levin, posted on his use of social media and how it helps him as a teacher and historian. The examples he noted are some of what I have done to increase the audience of this blog as well. In addition, I see blogging and the use of social media as a way for us to stay relevant in a climate where history is losing much of its value and distinctiveness to other disciplines that hold more lucrative salary potential, or to increasing trends towards inter-disciplinary type programs on college campuses. Using social media allows us to share our passion with those we may not otherwise interact with, either because of distance, or environment. One of our professors at UND, Bill Caraher, is the master of the social media and new technologies, as he regularly writes about it on his blog. While I am still not quite up on regularly tweeting or Facebooking, I am trying to interact with such new technologies, as they are the future and historians must embrace them to stay relevant to younger people.