Tweets Could Become Part Of Historical Record

Tweet

Twitter is one of those platforms that seem to be directed toward real-time consumption. As people write their tweets, people follow them as they are published making them expressions of the moment. If those tweets are archived, can they tell people years from now what we were thinking during those important events of history? Perhaps.

Andy Carvin acquired his own archive of tweets, which he worked with Twitter for six months to get, and plans on turning into a database with a little help from his friends (at NPR). Count them, 9,600+ tweets. When these tweets are added to the Library of Congress’ Twitter Archive, historians could be flipping through them years from now.

Can tweets possibly have any use for the future? Or should Twitter stick to the here and now? If we can look back at the streams of 140 character thoughts people were at one time having, it is possible we can have a glimpse of the past.