I said I wouldn’t do it. I said I wasn’t interested in blogging; didn’t see the point. It started off very slowly. First it was Facebook, then I got an Academia.edu page – FB for academics. Fine, I kidded myself, fully justifiable for an early-career historian. I convinced myself that I’d never start tweeting – why would anyone want to do that. But not long ago, egged on by a certain academic colleague who shall remain nameless (for the moment), I became a ‘Twitterstorian’.
This stuff takes over. I was overjoyed when I got to 50 followers, and delighted to make 100. Then the numbers kept on rising and by the time I got to 500 I had reached a state of virtual sublimity. This stuff is addictive; it makes you feel instantly popular. There is no Twitter equivalent of being the last kid in the school line to be picked for the soccer team.
But not a blog. No. Why bother? What would I possibly have to say? But then another chat with that same colleague (you know who you are Martin) has at least partially convinced me that blogging is the way forward. Let’s see…
Dr Alun Withey 