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Why Twitter Owes 20th-Century Postcards a "Thank You" Tweet

by Warren Riddle on September 8, 2009 at 07:24 AM


Young technophiles may believe that catchy abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons are new developments, arising because of the character limitations of certain modern means of communication like text messaging and tweeting.

But the satirical newspaper 'Puck' actually published the first documented emoticons in 1881, and Abraham Lincoln may have even used one when writing a speech. A joint study performed by Lancaster and Manchester Metropolitan universities has concluded that so-called "text speak," the practice of conserving space through abbreviation and lack of punctuation, dates back to at least the early 1900s due to another form of communication with limited space: the postcard.

According to the report, Britons mailed almost 6 billion postcards between 1901 and 1910, which equates to roughly 200 per person, and the writers frequently employed shortened words and ignored punctuation. According to Yahoo! News, stodgy fuddy-duddies expressed concern over the phenomenon because, "the use of postcards threatened literacy standards." Well, some things never change. [From: Yahoo! News]


Tags: acronym, emoticon, history, microblogging, postcard, retro, retrotech, text-speak, top, twitter

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