The Columbian exchange, Joan of Arc, the Huns, and TikTok. History related videos on the popular social media app are becoming increasingly more common.

     While many users on the video sharing app post dances and comedy sketches, others opt to posting strictly historical content.  For example, creator “slaviccaesar” is known for her educational TikToks.

     AP World History teacher Mr. Benjamin Scarborough says “[he] think[s] it’s great [that many users post historical content] because for certain students it increases engagement and interest.” One of his students, sophomore Claire Priebe, proves his theory by stating that she would be more interested in the class if they watched TikToks related to the curriculum.  

     The history teacher explains that the only thing keeping him from showing his class these TikToks, is the fact that the app is blocked by school WiFi. Otherwise, “[he] think[s] [he] would.”

     Even some of his past students are hopping on the trend and making their own history videos. Junior Taylor Mason makes short history related videos to send to her old teacher. She says that it started out of boredom, “one day I was just really bored, and I found my old world history notebook and I was like ‘hey let’s make some TikToks’ and I did so it was kind of out of boredom.” 

     Mason believes that these videos are “a good way to remember things” because “you’ll kind of associate [the topic] with the TikTok and it kind of makes you laugh and remember things so it’s kind of helpful.”

     Scarborough believes that this trend reflects the integration of technology in education, “it’s involving technology more and social media and [he] think[s] that’s great.” He also says, “it makes [him] very happy because it means that kids are learning history and using it in different ways.”