The Telegraph reports today that ‘Twitter’ has been around for far longer than anyone really imagined and has survived and evolved accordingly. A study by Lancaster and Manchester Universities has shown the Edwardians used postcards to send ‘tweets’ to each other on a regular basis.
The researches calculated that almost 6 billion postcards were posted in Britain between 1901 and 1910. This works out at an average of 200 per person. Like the Twitter of today size restrictions meant ‘tweets’ were short and sweet and language was shortened significantly. The Telegraph quotes an example of Edwardian text speak, ‘A postcard sent to a Mrs. Rowarth of The Lamb Inn begins: ''A P.C. from you this mg. is it tomorrow or next Sat. the opening. if tomorrow it is decidedly off with me. & I am afraid it would be the same next week.''’
The same concerns regarding the corruption of the English language were expressed then as now but it appears that some good ideas will always remain, all be it in different mediums.
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