In 2010, the Library of Congress decided to take on the lofty challenge of archiving every single tweet since the social media website’s inception in 2006. The institution believed that “archiving and preserving outlets such as Twitter will enable future researchers access to a fuller picture of today’s cultural norms, dialogue, trends and events to inform scholarship, the legislative process, new works of authorship, education and other purposes.” Apparently, they’ve just recently discovered archiving every single tweet about $200 dates and whatever else was essentially pointless.
At the start of the new year, the Library of Congress will no longer archive all tweets and will instead find specific ones to archive on a “selective basis,” according to Director of Communications Gayle Osterberg. All of the tweets collected from Twitter’s previous years will remain untouched. The library stated in the attached white paper that “the tweets collected and archived will be thematic and event-based, including events such as elections, or themes of ongoing national interest, e.g. public policy." This would include tweets more important than your ongoing debate with some Twitter egg with 5 followers.
A few factors led to the library’s decision to cut back on the tweets. The number of tweets has evolved at a rapid pace since the library signed off on this project. Twitter also expanded the length of tweets from 140 characters to 280, which seems to have been an important factor as well. People are also using more images and videos on Twitter; the library only collects text. Despite these limitations, the Library of Congress still intends to soldier on.
“The Twitter Archive may prove to be one of this generation’s most significant legacies to future generations,” the Library of Congress said. “Future generations will learn much about this rich period in our history, the information flows, and social and political forces that help define the current generation.” The archive is still embargoed, so we can’t see the full collection of tweets just yet.
