Snailmail, The Fax Machine, Email, Social Media and Twitter

Great way to think about the evolution of communication. Minding the Planet: How Twitter Makes Things Faster: A Timeline

The World is Getting Faster

In the world of Twitter things happen in real-time, not Internet-time. It's even faster than the world of the 1990's and the early 2000's. Here's an interesting timeline:

1. In the 1980's the fax machine made snailmail almost obsolete. Faxing was faster.
2. In the 1990's email made faxing almost obsolete. Email was faster.
3. In the 2000's social media rose to challenge email's dominance. The blogosphere became the center of focus.Blogging about something was often a faster way to get attention (to oneself, or to the topic) than emailing people. And you could more easily reach a larger audience.
4. In the 2010's it looks like Twitter (and other real-time messaging systems) may become more important than email and even blogging. Twitter is simply faster. And you can reach more people in less time, more interactively, in Twitter than via email.Twitter may overcome the asynchronous nature of the Web. Even search may go "real-time."