Lost Corners of the Internet: Longer excellent tweets

When Twitter officially expanded tweets from 140 characters to 280 characters late last year, I was bitter and cranky and whiny. (In other words, my usual self.) I had believed that 140 characters represented the perfect social-media communication art form — notwithstanding all the "OMG" and "WTF" tweets that spew forth during sporting events, awards shows and social-media-based nuclear brinksmanship between world leaders.

I had spent about 17 percent of my life learning to craft the perfect tweet, right down to the period as the 140th character. Because I'm a writer and editor, and sentences get periods at the end, dammit.

Anyway, it turns out that I'm also unnecessarily alarmist. And my insistent nostalgia for the days of 140-character tweets has transformed into appreciation for what can be done within 280 characters.

But, like everything else on the ephemeral Internet, tweets can be fleeting. Unless you print them out on a sheet of paper and tuck them into a book — and I am guilty of doing this — it's possible we'll get to a point where they are lost to future generations.

So this is my attempt to both show appreciation for a handful of new, long-form tweets that I have come across and to give them a tiny boost toward being saved for history and posterity. For good measure, please print these out and tuck them into your favorite book. Or copy them onto a postcard and mail it to someone.

Little girl next to me has the sparkliest blue snowflake dress and fancy white leggings and mirrorshades and purple headphones and a DVD player and if taking pics of other people's kids wasn't creepy ass I'd be all over it because she is the most cyberpunk thing I've ever seen.

— Elizabeth Bear (@matociquala) March 10, 2018

I carried my children, in my body, under my heart, for a combined total of 82 weeks. Do not think for a single moment that I love my kids less than you love your guns. I will fight for their safety without cease and I will pit my love against yours the whole way. I will win.

— Karen Snyder (@themamadominus) March 7, 2018

Oh, young people. If the frayed and tired elders only knew how amazing you are. If they could only hear your feet on the pavement, your voices at the door of change. If they could only remember themselves. Thank you.

— Jason Reynolds (@JasonReynolds83) March 14, 2018

here’s to the nerds, the freaks, the dreamers, the artists and poets who spent years being told you were too loud, too intense, too enthusiastic, too weird, too much: I admire your bravery and applaud your vision. keep speaking, keep writing, keep going. the world needs you.

— the library haunter 🦉 (@SketchesbyBoze) March 6, 2018

So many beautiful moments w/ authors holding their 1st book for the 1st time. I remember pulling my 1st copy of Pack of Dorks from the mailbox, seeing the mailbox had been infested with fire ants, dropping the book and stomping on it. All our experiences are different, I guess.

— Beth Vrabel 🐻 📚 (@beth_vrabel) March 7, 2018

A man on the tube with ginger hair and spectacles suddenly smiles at something arising amongst the loops of thought inside his head. He wears large orange corduroy flares and an Exorcist t-shirt.

— Miranda Keeling (@MirandaKeeling) March 11, 2018

dear diary
i mixed up a laundry by mistake and now my clothes that were deep black like the void in space left by destroying a traitorous planet are only light black like darth vader’s helmet in shadow on a moon
it is quite distressing
scarcely any of my outfits work

— Emo Kylo Ren (@KyloR3n) March 15, 2018