Thirteen years ago, in February 2008 I joined Twitter. Since then, Twitter tells me that I have amassed around 55k tweets. If everyone of them was 140 characters (the original Twitter character limit of course), that would be 7.7m characters.
Yesterday I sat at home reading through the results of Twitter searches for #collierswood and 'Colliers Wood' trying to the gauge reaction from the highly organised looting of our nearby shopping centres. Amongst the many tweets of reaction and photos were statements that it was all kicking off again. They'd struck the Tandem Centre again; people were fleeing Sainsburys in panic; hoodies were hanging round the tube station carrying golf clubs. Staples at South Wimbledon was on fire. Police sirens were going off everywhere as they couldn't cope.
I recently had a go using a new TV. Not that special except that the TV in question had an Ethernet connection going into it, meaning the world of internet delivered content was available. The presence of a back channel meant that communication to the viewer was no longer one way.