Throughout the past couple years there has been a gradual decline in blogging among historians & correlated growth in Twitter threads, or what some call “microblogging.”

Let me argue in defense of “traditional” non-Twitter blogging. Through a Twitter thread. #twitterstorians

In my view, Twitter threads have grown for several reasons. For one, Twitter itself realized that people were beginning to string together thoughts that required more that 140/280 characters, so they made it easier for users to create threads like this one.

Secondly, threads allow for quick thoughts to be shared & received by an active & engaged audience. We’ve seen some threads by historians reach a large audience that goes far beyond the confines of the profession, particularly threads that respond to historical falsities.

Third, Twitter no longer privileges a timelime where you only see tweets in chronological older. Popular tweets are the first thing you see on the timeline now, even if they were posted 8 hours ago. Threads w big names & lots of reactions are most privileged. For better or worse.

While this format allows for quick thoughts & a sense of order via threads, blogging should still be a tool within the historian’s hand-belt. One major reason, of course, is that blogs allow for longer, more detailed essays that help clarify arguments & precise points.

But there’s more. The most important reason is that blogs—on your own website or a collective history blog—are more accessible to readers long after a moment of hot discussion/controversy on Twitter.

A blog, particularly on a personal website, is an accessible record of YOU.

Blog posts, through the use of tags, metadata, & search engines, are easier to find for someone exploring a particular historical topic as opposed to a thread. This fact is even more true given the fact that many folks interested in history are not on Twitter, but use Google.

So my hope is that historians who are interested in using the internet to share their work don’t fully abandon blogs in favor of Twitter threads. Most of social media is very fleeting. Putting in the work outside of Twitter—even if it’s just linking to your tweets—is important.

Thus ends my thread about threads and blogging, which will eventually be turned into a blog post in due time.