Twitter as an Epistolary Form

            I think it’s safe to say that Twitter is a huge component of the media and marketing of businesses and of our personal lives as well. Five years ago, if you saw something with a ‘#’ (or a hashtag) sign in front of it pop up during your favorite television show or sporting event, you’d think, ‘What on earth?’ Now everything has a Twitter presence, and it’s safe to say that Twitter is one of the most self-expressive platforms we have available to us currently. The way Twitter works is interesting, though; it’s a combination of tweeting things yourself, and re-tweeting or replying to things you can relate to, things you feel similarly about, or things that you simply think to yourself, ‘I couldn’t have said it better myself.’

            I think a person’s personal twitter account and the things they tweet and re-tweet is an epistolary form all in its own. There’s a lot you can learn from what people tweet and re-tweet. It’s a series of on-going thoughts and events that you share with the world and if you compiled the ones you write each day, they’d form a journal entry or perhaps even a letter. I’ll use my twitter page as an example. On my twitter page today, if you compiled it and made it into a journal or letter form, it would read something like this:

 

“I think Brockport should call it a day and cancel everything since it’s a white out outside. Brockport is two miles long so I don’t know if the plows are just taking the day off or what, but the roads are bad. Bless my teacher’s soul for cancelling night class! I think all I want for Valentine’s Day is a container of rainbow sprinkles; I think Melissa might agree with me. I read an article about Adam Brody thinking his character from The OC would be killed off by now, you should read it. I can’t believe so many people got so angry over the Coca-Cola commercial; someone joked that unless you came over on the Mayflower, you shouldn’t be upset. I thought that was funny. I found some pictures of puppies today and I wanted to show you – look at these!”

 

          Essentially, this is my day via my tweets.  Comprised together in a sensible form, it can read a lot like an e-mail or a letter. The author of a personal Twitter page, by tweeting, is inviting people to agree or disagree with what they’re saying. Readers can reply and challenge you, or re-tweet what you said and comment that they agree or were thinking the same thing. Mostly, tweets are individualized, but when you use hash-tags for shows and sporting events, you’re grouped in with the other people who are using the same hash-tag as you, putting their two-cents into what the topic is, too. I also think this epistolary form, as a series of thoughts and ideas by one person, can tell you a lot about who they are and what kind of personality and morals they have. That’s how the narrative is created in this form, through the recording of a series of events and thoughts in 140 characters or less. There is no beginning and end; it’s an ongoing overflow of personal thoughts. Notice how in the comprised letter I made up based on my tweets today, I went from talking about Brockport & the weather, to sprinkles, television shows and advertisements, and then ended with puppies. It’s all a series of events and thoughts that are thought to be notable enough to share or express with someone other than oneself, and that’s all letters and other epistolary forms really are.