A First Time for Everything

2014-03-22

A First Time for Everything

On the event of its 8th birthday, Twitter has released a tool that will let you find your first Twitter message. Ah, the good ol’ days. My first message was…

I have no idea the context or even where I was. I do know that, if I was in Essex County, it might have been one of our famous storms that come up at a moment’s notice. For those of you who question my sleeping habits, you’ll undoubtedly notice that it was first thing in the morning, even back then. ~59.5K messages later and here I am today.

I am comforted that my message wasn’t “I hope this works” or “Testing…Testing…Testing” or “I’m in a workshop learning how to Tweet”.

What was your first Twitter message?

Head over to the tool and find out. It’s located here.

You’re not limited to just yourself. Find and shame your friends!

I’ll bet that the hashtag #FirstTweet trends for the next week or so until we tire of this and move on….

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Computers, Education, Just Rambling, learning, PLN, Read/Write Web

Posted by:

dougpete

The content of this blog is created by me at the keyboard or as a result of an aggregator of my daily reading under the title OTR Links. On Fridays, look for my signature post “This Week in Ontario Edublogs” where I try to share some great writing from Ontario Educators. The other regular post appears Sunday mornings as I try to start a conversation about things that have gone missing from our daily lives.

7 responses to “A First Time for Everything”

Andrew Forgrave

March 22, 2014 at 7:31 am

Hey, Doug!

I know you have a blog post somewhere about a similar, third-party web app that offered to chase down the first tweet for folks. I wonder if the two find the same tweet?

In hoping that Twitter might have my original, true, first tweet on record, I checked just now. Alas, no.

What Twitter shows for @aforgrave is “Re-activating Twitter” — I had used Twitter for some time to track releases of a beta software I was testing, it may be that none of that remains.

I’m now intrigued to know what my #SecondTweet or #ThirdTweet might have been. For the record, my first tweet as an educator was “Just got up, gonna make toast.” It was an intentional nod and wink to a Faculty of Education professor who once asked us to dig a bit deeper (as we started our journals) than just reporting on our meals. (Granted, I have since succumbed to the occasional meal photo tweet!)

I’m wondering if Twitter has an archive of all of our deleted tweets, and if they might one day offer those up for public review, too? Knowing someone’s #FirstTweet may appear as a novelty, but having access to everyone’s deleted Tweets (or DMs, after the fact) might not necessarily go over so well.

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alfredtwo

March 22, 2014 at 9:58 am

My first tweet was pretty close to “in a workshop trying out twitter” and that was indeed what was going on. I had no idea where it would lead. Turns out it lead me to a lot of great people over the years. Now I am interested in my first few tweets as I learned how to use the tool.

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Kaitlyn Wyman

March 22, 2014 at 7:22 pm

Hi Mr. Peterson, my name is Kaitlyn Wyman and I am in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I came across your blog and yours are probably the most interesting that I’ve experienced, but to cut to the chase, I love your post about your first tweet ever. I need to try it out so see what my first tweet was. Thanks for sharing!

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bgrasley

March 23, 2014 at 9:05 pm

Mine was sarcastic: “getting ready for bed. Love hotels.” in October 2009. If I remember correctly, the next one was about toast. Hardly profound. Thanks for letting me know about the tool!

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David Hann

March 27, 2014 at 10:48 pm

Cool little app! My first tweet is (or was?) “Can’t wait for #ECOO11! Looking forward to fun (AND learning!) with #edtech :]” from October of 2011.

Reflecting back I’m pretty much in awe of how much has changed for me in such a short time, particularly in terms of how I feel about my own PD, and the amazing connections I have made as a result of being on twitter (and of course going to two ECOO conferences).

One thing I didn’t realize at the time was how much work it is to build and develop a network. Also, I didn’t realize how it would change the way I think, as in when something in the class or school happens my thoughts often run to “hey that’s tweetable”. Now that I am encouraging colleagues to try it out, it’s interesting to see them involved in the process of taking that first step, and the development of that first tweet!

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1. Andrew Forgrave
  
  March 28, 2014 at 5:57 am
  
  David!
  
  Your #FirstTweet is truly worthy of being recognized, as is the reflection that it has generated. Indeed, such a simple thing as little 140-character #tag Twitter has truly revolutionalized professional learning and collaborating for those educators who have embraced it!
  
  🙂
  
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David Hann

April 2, 2014 at 10:54 pm

And a COLLABORATION it continues to be Andrew! For example I don’t think I had even heard of MineCraft before #ecoo11. With connections gained via ecoo/twitter I learned something I might not have otherwise. I still haven’t embraced Minecraft (yet… I recognize there’s only so much time on my plate…) but I also recognize it’s value in engaging students and providing actual learning (unlike some/many video games). How many times have kids said to me “i’m telling my parents that YOU said that minecraft is educational” … to which I reply “just let me qualify that statement SLIGHTLY”. Any suggestions for navigating THAT minefield??? 😉

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