this was so hard to write

Digital possibilities offer a number of exciting new ways to conduct and transmit oral history, but transmission alone does not create a paradigm change as defined by Kuhn. The socio-cultural impact of online communication and communities has a broad-reaching impact on how individuals and societies define themselves. Since oral historians are concerned with the myths that make meaning of history, the context and voice of narrators are key to understanding where a narrator’s story matches the record, where it does not, and why these disconnects exist. In order to discover the essential meaning for narrators of the digital age, online interactions and how they match and do not match actual interactions will prove to be a key facet of oral history methodology as we move forward. The transformation in the conception of the self and of society due to the global flows enabled by technology constitutes the paradigm change, as the possibilities for cultural transmission impact how people communicate with others and make choices for their lives in society.