This is What I Call a Time Machine

Filed in General on April 16, 2010 with 3 comments

What does Google, Twitter and The Library of Congress have in common? Besides all of them having access to massive amounts of information, they want to start archiving all of your communication on social networking sites. Essentially: You say it on twitter, archive it in LOC and search for it on Google.

Now that we are more apt to sharing our personal feelings on sociial networking sites, the amount of data we’ll have access too (not just what people say, but how they feel) for years to come is mind numbing.

Or as the official blogger for the Library of Congress says, “I’m no Ph.D. but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data. And I’m certain we’ll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive.”

Google has already released a tool allowing users to pick a specific point in time and review messages from MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.

Again, mind numbing.

Five, ten, fifteen, fifty years from now we’ll be able to know what you had for breakfest, how you feel about your best friend on any given day….only if you’re a chronic user of these tools of course.

Put a little differently, “Tweets and other short-form updates create a history of commentary that can provide valuable insights into what’s happened and how people have reacted,” wrote Dylan Casey, Google’s product manager for real-time search. “Want to know how the news broke about health care legislation in Congress, what people were saying about Justice Paul Stevens’ retirement or what people were tweeting during your own marathon run? These are the kinds of things you can explore with the new updates mode.”

As most of you on this site already know, everything you touch these days leaves a digital footprint. This is just another example of how your actions will matter for years to come.

I don’t think FDR fully understood what he was talking about after saying the famous words “This day will forever live in infamy.” Yes, he was referring to a national tragedy, but I have a feeling some people will replace “day” with Tweet or Status update if it brings down a career or relationship.

Your micro-blogs will be just as effective without being archived, however, this just makes the story better. If everything that comes out of your mouth ends up on Twitter…well, good luck my friend. Thank God its not me.

With this said, I doubt Ozzie Guilen is going to care whether his Tweets will end up in the Library of Congress… Even though it will make for some interesting talk around the dinner table one day.

Or should I say Tweeting.

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About the Author

Joel Ellegood is currently a full time college student, and passionate follower of online marketing, social media, and politics. If it's in the news...chances are he's caught it. It's not just a love for the news that allows Joel to write here at MetaFever.com, it's the fact that he's been there and done it. By age 18 he was managing media buys and ad spends for a large ecommerce group that often hit $250,000 / month. This is what gives him the right to be here....so, sit back and enjoy.

Comments (3)

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  1. good says:
    April 20, 2010 at 2:12 am

    good luck!

  2. Beginner DJ says:
    April 28, 2010 at 11:27 pm

    I think it’s going to be very interesting when we can all see a collection from everything we ever did online.

    My aim has been saving chat logs for years now, occasionally I’ll open them up and see how I’d have insane conversations late at night with old friends, sharing video game info, pure randomness.

    What will it be like 20 years from now when the data collected could give a perfect representation of yourself?

    • Joel Ellegood says:
      April 29, 2010 at 8:13 pm

      Some may call it freaky, but I’m one to call it a historic event – allowing researches a great opportunity in preserving the past.

      I recently asked the question….what would Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King or James Madison have said should they of had Twitter? Even though we have speeches and various writings from them…these tools will allow us to judge “spur of the moment” feelings and emotions.

      I think you nailed it by saying “when the data collected will give you a perfect representation” of yourself.

      There was a study conducted in Europe saying the majority of people are actually honesty in the information they stick on social networking sites….with this said, history should serve us well in the next 20-50 years and beyond.