Tweets Preserved for Next Generations

Today the US Library of Congress announced- via Twitter- that it will preserve the world’s tweets for posterity. This means that your descendants and others may be able to look up what you’ve said decades from now..

There are over 100 million twitter users and every day fifty-five million tweets are sent to Twitter, numbers that are ever increasing. All the tweets back through to march 2006 will now be accessible in the library for research or just for general interest.

The idea is that tweets have become part world events around the world and thus of our history and are therefore worth preserving.

The Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States and the largest library in the world. The Library’s mission is research and it receives copies of every book, pamphlet, map, print, and piece of music registered in the United States.

Undoubtedly it will be an interesting database for future generations!