If you’re tired of the hell dimension that is present-day Twitter, internet renaissance man Andy Baio has the link for you: here’s what your Twitter feed would look like ten years ago today (if you followed all the people you follow now). Of course, you can only see tweets from people who were already on Twitter in these early days. Your old feed is probably quiet. It’s probably nerdy. And it’s probably calming.
Want to see what your Twitter timeline would’ve looked like 10 years ago today, if you followed all the same people you do now? https://t.co/41a6iQcYhc
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) May 24, 2018
Back in 2008, people tended to actually just tweet what they were doing at the time.
a full day of working? i just wanna dance.
— sara zucker (@sbz) May 23, 2008
Back from a nature walk in the Poconos with Jake. Slimey salamanders say hello.
— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) May 24, 2008
Waiting for my BlackBerry to sync — why is it rebooting now? I’m late for lunch.
— Joshua Auerbach (@auerbach) May 22, 2008
Taking lots of vitamins and Advil before I go to sleep. (Somewhat) busy day tomorrow.
— Tabby Russell Wilhelmsen (@tabbytabby) May 23, 2008
Watching a weeks worth of jeopardy. So awesome.
— roxane gay (@rgay) May 24, 2008
Feeds were full of mild observations that would barely warrant a mention in real-life conversation. The jokes weren’t polished, or even really jokes. Twitter was boring. It was nice.
beer? During a haircut? Hell yeah 😀
— ???????????????????? ???????????????? ???????????????????????????????? ???????? ???????????????? (@TheDavidMurphy) May 17, 2008
Woman on bus wearing highlighter-yellow socks that exactly match her translucent highlighter-yellow tote bag.
— Laura M. Browning (@ellembee) May 23, 2008
We’re very serious about Wii bowling…
— jennvanescence (@jennschiffer) May 20, 2008
just cut my own hair. it looks fine. screw you, Supercuts, I’m FREE!
— Lindsay Robertson (@lindsayism) May 22, 2008
Is it bad that I have a favorite 40oz? Because if it is, I don’t want to be right. (KC over OE for reals.)
— nilay patel (@reckless) May 23, 2008
Looking at a tree that is easily 300 years old and has cancer. Punchline: Ted Kennedy.
— BUM CHILLUPS (@edsbs) May 21, 2008
Hey thanks Amazon for the McDonald’s chicken sandwich coupon in the latest shipment. No seriously, it was breakfast and I liked it.
— Nick Douglas (@toomuchnick) May 23, 2008
(I was not in a great place in 2008!)
The drama was relatively low-key. Toxic shit happened! But it wasn’t the dominant subject. Ten years ago, the main story in my feed was blogger Emily Gould’s Gawker retrospective.
Reading the Emily Gould story made me scared to be a blogger in New York. http://tinyurl.com/628ouz
— Alissa Walker (@awalkerinLA) May 23, 2008
5 Things About That Times Magazine Piece On Masturbatory Blogging: Maybe you heard but there’s a big stor.. http://tinyurl.com/5br8t8
— Jezebel (@Jezebel) May 23, 2008
NYT mag cover article this weekend reaffirms “better take down oversharing web site” decision few years back
— Gina Trapani ????️???? (@ginatrapani) May 22, 2008
I keep noticing that no one quote tweeted. Back then, you’d have to do that manually, and you couldn’t fit their tweet plus your own commentary into the 140 characters. This, I believe, is the essence of why Twitter wasn’t a hellscape. Quote-tweeting, links, and replies were all less attention-getting. Twitter hadn’t started feeding on extreme emotion and negative attention. An user couldn’t get very far by spewing abuse; Twitter actually cared enough to shut down the few who tried.
It’s not like the outside world was much better than it is now. The financial crisis was already gearing up, we already had mass shootings and unjust wars, and we didn’t know if we’d get Obama or McCain. Maybe it’s just that Twitter was too small, and all online communities are doomed to either disappear or grow until the Nazis join up. Either way, go enjoy your boring old 2008 Twitter feed.
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