A little humor for this Tuesday morning:...
Current welcomes Felicia Wu Song as Associate Editor!
Today Felicia Wu Song makes her debut at Current. Check out her piece on the misdoings of Facebook titled “Locked In, Cradle to Grave.” Earlier this Fall, Felicia joined Current an Associate Editor. She is Professor of Sociology at Westmont...
When Facebook replaces the local newspaper
The editor of Current, Eric Miller, is a resident of Beaver County, Pennsylvania. I wonder if he knows about The News Alert of Beaver County public Facebook group? I’ll have to ask him. Brandy Zadrony’s piece at NBC News reveals...
James Dobson on Biden’s election: “America and Western Civilization will never be the same.” (And other court evangelical news)
As I write, Washington D.C. is an armed camp. 25,000 National Guard members are ready to defend the U.S. Capitol during Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony on January 20. Meanwhile, people are still dying of COVID-19. Incoming President Joe Biden is...
Free speech! Free speech! The court evangelicals process the events of the last week.
It’s been a very ugly week in America. By this time next week, Donald Trump may be the only United States president to have been impeached twice. We are getting more and more disturbing images and videos from Wednesday’s invasion...
When the culture-war wing of your Christian university is named after a disgraced president and an internet troll…
How long will the administration of Liberty University allow its culture warrior wing, aka the Falkirk Center, to exist? The Falkirk Center is named for two pro-Trump culture warriors: Jerry Falwell Jr. and Charlie Kirk. We now know that Jerry...
Facebook bans court evangelical Charlie Kirk’s marketing firm for presiding over a “troll farm”
Readers of this blog will be familiar with Charlie Kirk, the Trump wonder boy who co-founded Liberty University’s Falkirk Center and is the president of an organization he co-founded called Turning Point USA. The self-proclaimed evangelical Christian is known for...
Some tips on avoiding fake campaign advertising
As the November elections approach, the New-York Historical Society offers some helpful advice. Here is a taste of its post “‘I Approve This Message’: 7 Online Ploys to Look Out for this Election Season.” 2)Â Fake videos These videos seem to...
Is the Founder of The Veritas Forum Behind an Anti-Muslim Facebook Campaign?
What is going on with Kelly Monroe Kullberg, the founder of the Veritas Forum? Here is a taste of Asysha Kahn’s piece at Religion News Service: Fact-checking website Snopes linked the network to Kelly Monroe Kullberg, the founder and president of The...
Facebook as a Source of Civil Dialogue
Everyone uses Facebook in different ways. Â I initially tried to use my Facebook page as a place to share photos and stories about my kids and family, but in the last year or so it has become more of a...
Should Young Academics Be On Twitter?
Oliver Bateman, a historian and journalist, explores this question over at The Atlantic. Here is a taste: Scholarly research has lent credence to anecdotal claims about social media’s growing importance as a networking tool for academics at all stages of their...
Why Historians Should Consider Facebook and Twitter
Every now and then a post like this appears somewhere on-line. Â Here are a few examples: Why Historians Should Use Twitter Should Historians Use Twitter? Five Ways for Historians to Use Twitter Historians and Facebook: In the Halls of an...
Do The Things We Do Online Make Sense in Real Life?
Very funny and so true. http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1...
Facebook Post of the Day
“Dr. _____ what would the Founders think about all this debate about gay marriage if they were suddenly here today?’Â Answer: “They would be confused why people were against happy marriages.”
Raul Pacheco-Vega on Social Media in the Academy
Check out Melonie Fullick’s interview with Raul Pacheco-Vega, a political scientist who teaches in both Mexico and Canada, on his use of social media. Here is a taste:Melonie Fullick: You’re part of a relatively small but growing group of academics...
Are You on the Job Market? Think Hard About Your Web Presence
In this day and age many academic job seekers are wondering how much of a web or social media presence they should have when they are on the market. As someone who has served on several search committees, I would...
Conversation in an Age of Online Chat
When I was writing The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America, I spent a lot of time reading about the eighteenth-century idea of “conversation.” Philip Vickers Fithian spent a lot of […]
Professors and Multiple On-Line Identities
I can relate to this article in The Chronicle of Education. It seems that professors around the country are pursuing multiple online identities. It is not easy trying to separate one’s personal use of social media from one’s professional or...
I Want to be a More Shallow Person…On Facebook.
Over at ProfHacker, Ryan Cordell explains why he cut his Facebook friends in half: I realize that, for many people, a Facebook friend differs substantially from a “real” friend. Indeed, I’ve heard my students use the term “Facebook friend” as […]
Professors Prefer YouTube over Facebook and Twitter
I have never used Facebook or Twitter to teach American history.  I am sure that there are creative and effective ways of using these social media tools in the classroom, but I have not found them yet. I have,...