In real-time, journalists’ tweets contribute to a ‘raw draft’ of history | Poynter.

In real-time, journalists’ tweets contribute to a ‘raw draft’ of history | Poynter.:


I was actually thinking about this exact thing the other day... Earlier this year my family started clearing out closets and my parents pulled out boxes of letters from friends and family, old calendars, photos and so on—a physical paper record of their communications and life before the internet. My generation doesn't have that they pointed out. You don't have any of this because it's all online now. This is true.

While I have never really had any serious correspondence with anyone via mail—if I have to send a letter or package I have to double check a Wiki to make sure I don't mess it up—I do have a record.

In coming weeks Facebook is updating the Profile page and turning it into something they call "Timelines." "The story of your life," as Mark Zuckerburg said in his Keynote presentation at F8.

I don't have boxes of letters. I have my entire Facebook page, my blog, my archived AIM and Skype conversations, and my twitter feed. All of which give me a day to day view of what was going on in my life. I can go back to December 5th, 2006 and see how I was feeling that day, what I was reading, who I was talking to and whatever other information I felt like posting at the time. Admittedly it's not nearly as important as Carvin's archived twitter feed.

This, I guess, is sort of creepy in its specificity. But it's reassuring to know that their is a record that's slowly been accumulating over time and that their will be something specific I can look at to remember the good old days.

A Brief Update... more to come

Hellooo everyone... so I haven't entirely forgotten this blog, PROMISE.

I hope to write several posts this coming week and then get back into the habit of posting more regularly for my final two months here in China.

A brief update:

My first month in Beijing was spent frantically running from class to class, to group field trip, back to class, to dinner and then back to the dorm to do homework. Out of control.

My languages classes lasted for four hours everyday, sometimes six. And then a two hour history class twice a week. AND we also had/have two trips a week, one on wednesdays (with the history class) and one on the weekend.

My schedule has now slowed down a little bit because I'm no longer taking the insane language classes, which as freed up my evenings and calmed down my day to day life a little bit. "But how?!" I hear you all cry from across the world. I'm now doing an internship! It's pretty great. I'm mostly writing articles for the tech-blog side of their website. But I'm also doing research and some other stuff.

I still am taking my Chinese History class and I have Chinese language for two hours on Monday and Friday.

I'm also hoping I can pick up a small tutoring job from this mom I met in the lobby of my dorm the other day. A little spare money never hurt anyone :)

Will write more this weekend!