The Twitter Museum

Things like this always make me wonder what kind of running commentary we would have made if twitter had indeed been around in last century. How many different ways can you relate your children to life in a concentration camp.

Well, yes and no. First of all, pseudo self-reflexive irony is the collective trading card du jour. And it’s not about excluding people or assuming other people don’t have those problems - it’s an acknowledgement that for much of the world, these aren’t the most pressing problems. That we’re whiny.

But since most of those “other” people aren’t actually on Twitter, the complaint does start to fray around the edges.

futuramb:

These great digital powers [Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and maybe Microsoft] are now building Digital Civilizations, rather than a series of mere products, individual platforms or even ecosystems (around a platform). They are pursuing strategies that reach far beyond the confines of existing markets. They are causing widespread market collisions as they push industries to overlap, merge or cease to exist. They are outflanking and disrupting companies that follow less ambitious corporate strategies.

These new Digital Civilizations use identity to tie numerous disparate products, many devices, multiple platforms and product portfolios together into their long term strategy. Each Civilization has hundreds of millions of active users — often with credit cards attached — far more than even the largest telecom operators or media companies. They straddle industries rather than operating within legacy market sectors. They have an organizing ideology underlying their strategy that motivates and attracts talented employees, excites partners, and is the foundation for the marketing that entices users to become their customers.

This is an interesting analysis of what is going on… Well worth reading and thinking about!

Other than passing on info, does this change anything? Would it have changed anything in real time? I don’t know what the value or purpose of these exercises is… Will anyone actually follow for the length of the war?

These tweets manage to reinforce the complete triviality and impossibility of capturing major historical moments in 140 characters. We don’t notice it when we’re in the moment, but it becomes so clear after the fact.

Perhaps if someone tried to recreate all the tweets that might have occurred on a particular topic, they could capture a sense of the times.

Otherwise, it’s just a series of way-too-obvious cliches.