Social Media: Back to the 1800’s
Tim Davis 26 January 2012 15:34:45
When I read old ghost stories on my iPad, I keep tapping Define to improve my olde worlde vocab. Most of the time I think I know what a strange word means, but its fun to be able to immediately look it up and see how close I am.I was reading a ghost story last night, and I came across the word 'epigram'. I know what it means, but was interested in the official definition. Here it is:
"A pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way"
Back in the 1800's epigrams were used everywhere for bon-mots, short poems and quips. People used them in letters, in pamphlets, in poetry collections, newpaper quotes, etc. They were the epitome of succinct wit, and were published across all available media of the time. Think of the sayings of Oscar Wilde, or Mark Twain.
Here in the 21st century, we have Twitter's artificial 140 character limit which effectively forces waffley blogs down into neat epigram-sized bites, and provides the medium to broadcast them. For the first time in over a hundred years, we have a means for anyone to publish an epigram.
The internet may be new, but the content is the same as ever. Welcome back to the 1800's.
- Comments [2]