Twitter: The Good, The Bad, The Indifferent

When I heard that Twitter went down today, I thought they were only kidding. I signed up to TweetDeck just this week, and aside from that notice, would never have known the difference. Probably because I work for a living.

But I did learn something interesting about this emerging new medium. John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), the sixth President of the USA (1825-29), may have been the first Twitterer -- or Tweeter, or Twit, or whatever the h@#$ they're called. His collection of short, less-than-140-character journal entries have been found by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Adams was “posting” as he traveled from Boston to St. Petersburg, Russia, where he was to serve as ambassador.

August 6, 1809:
“Thick fog. Scanty Wind. On George’s Bank. Lat: 42-34. Read Massillon’s Careme Sermons 2 & 3. Ladies are sick.”

You can read the full story in The New York Times, or go straight to his Twitter account: http://twitter.com/JQAdams_MHS.

Nothing new under the sun, eh?
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