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These days Twitter is all about enticing Moments, story-telling threads and an unending stream of memes but 10 years ago it was a completely different scene.
Those scrolling through their feed in 2008 would have have come across mostly controversy-free life updates, along with tidbits from early adopters of the social media site.
Shower, lunch with Rachel, tanning with Rachel, hanging out all day with Rachel, I love my life, don't you? <3
— tyler oakley (@tyleroakley) May 24, 2008
I love to eat (possibly expired) egg salad sandwiches at the airport because I like to live on the edge.
— Matt Haughey (@mathowie) May 23, 2008
just got off the phone with Newt. Gingrich . Great 35 minute interview. podcast and transcript will go up shortly.
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) May 23, 2008
Contemplating what to do next… I'm kind of hungry… Maybe I'll pop a CD in and grab food..
— Josh McConnell (@joshmcconnell) May 23, 2008
And if you are keen to reminisce how things were like back then, Andy Baio, the former chief technology officer for Kickstarter, has an easy hack that will take you down the memory lane.
Want to see what your Twitter timeline would've looked like 10 years ago today, if you followed all the same people you do now? https://t.co/41a6iQcYhc
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) May 24, 2018
Basically, it involves a simple search code (filter:follows until:2008-05-25 -filter:repliesfilter:follows until:2008-05-25 -filter:replies), which can take you back to any year in the site’s history, showing tweets from the accounts you follow from that time.
While Baio’s link takes you back to May 25, 2008, you can change the dates to suit your needs.
Those on their mobile will have to filter by “latest” to make sure the timeline is working properly.
By the way, if you remove the date parameter from that search and click "Latest," you get a strict reverse-chronological timeline with no algorithm junk. 🙌 https://t.co/OTOeFTZfiz
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) May 24, 2018
Baio also shared a link to show what Twitter would have looked like five years ago.
And change the date to whenever you like! Here's what Twitter looked like FIVE years ago today. (Hit "Latest" to see all tweets if you're on mobile.) https://t.co/GdsdkgKGRh
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) May 24, 2018
Since his tweet on May 24, people have been sharing screenshots of their timelines from bygone days.
Cf: @mezzoblue @zeldman @sampullara @merci pic.twitter.com/J3yasoAQdS
— Tom Coates (@tomcoates) May 24, 2018
Mine is just a weird night @paulscheer had? pic.twitter.com/O4831lQqUT
— Rich Barney (@rkbarney) May 24, 2018
Relevant to 2018 (cc @arielwaldman @t @jimray) pic.twitter.com/eyXUbVCxm2
— ᴛɪᴍᴏɴɪ ᴡᴇsᴛ (@timoni) May 24, 2018
There was also a reminder the retweet button didn’t exist 10 years ago…
The retweet button wasn't added until 2009! Also, Twitter likes used to be "faves" which felt like a much higher bar. Much smaller userbase, too.
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) May 25, 2018
Simpler times.
