Twitter archive – references of the future

By Katherine Henden – Account Manager, Echo Research Ltd.

I came across some interesting news that the Library of Congress is to archive every publicly posted tweet. It has been estimated there are around 55million tweets a day, which is ever growing, so this will be quite some task but will create an information monster.

This got me thinking about what this means for future generations who will be able to search back to the big events of our time and get first hand feeling and opinion. They will be able access incredible information like President Obama’s thoughts at being elected, see how compassionately the world reacted to the New Orleans and Haiti disasters, get first-hand accounts of the war in Afghanistan and see just how much of a viral/ social media phenomenon Justin Bieber became.

How amazing would it have been to have access to this kind of information while we were at school? In history essays you could be quoting Martin Luther King for many inspirational words other than his “I have a dream” speech, you would have read exactly how Nelson Mandela felt after his release, seen public opinion on the moon landing, the instant reactions to the JFK shooting (maybe even viewing the twitpics) and so many other events that have shaped the world. The archive will also have great implications for anthropological and cultural research in the future.

The internet is a powerful tool which has already altered the way we communicate. The archiving of twitter posts will revolutionise the way we look at history in the future. Public opinion and instant sentiment is now at everyone’s fingertips. This is definitely an exciting time to be living in and I for one am thrilled that my tweets will be a part of it.

The opinions and views expressed in this blog are the personal opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Echo Research, its staff or any of its affiliates.