Speaking Volumes

I recently learned that the Library of Congress is going to archive all public Tweets!  (Although I’m not sure this is possible, if you don’t know what a Tweet is, it’s the one line public comment that appears on the social networking site Twitter.)
 
First, this is staggering simply by the amount of data this includes, but second due to the amount of, well, drivel this will include.  Every public message… so every fan who writes “I love _____.”   Every sales pitch that says, “Special Sale…”  Every one who wants to share, “My favorite TV show is on tonight.”  “I love my new IPad.” … Everyone who wants to see their opinion in print…. including now the hoards of tweets which say: LC is going to archive this – cool!  What do you think about this? etc. etc. etc.
 
As I write this, I checked their web site.  Wednesday afternoon, top tweets only, all public (as I am not a member and can only see public information)  there are over 4,000 tweets and over 33,000 people following just these “popular” commentaries alone.
 
When I abandoned trying to think about the kinds of numbers this represented and where LC would keep this information, I thought: Why?  Fortunately the NPR reporter from which I heard this news had provided the answer.  They believe this data will be helpful in the future to track how information flows, how quickly news spreads and lots of interesting info about communication.
 
Hmph.  Maybe.  Or …. Some time 300 years from now, some one will look back and try to figure out why any of was so important to their ancestors and why the Jonas Brothers were so powerful.