March 21, 2006. Around 9am.

Hey! Did you just feel that?!

Feel what?

That shaking! Dude! I think there was just an earthquake somewhere nearby.

Well, I guess we’ll hear about it on the news tonight.

That’s ten freaking hours away. I need to know NOW if there was an earthquake a hundred miles from here.

Well, there is no way to know. Sorry dude.

      March 21, 2006. Around 11am.

I know what can be done for all the people who need up to the minute news! Dude, this is like Google on instant wikipedian steroids! Let’s make a website where people can send messages into cyberspace to let everyone know what is happening at that. Precise. Moment.

Why would anyone even do that?

Because everyone wants to know if they just felt an earthquake or if it was all in their head!

That sounds like a really stupid idea. We already have breaking news sites.

But not for earthquakes! Not for celebrity sitings! Not for teens who want to let the world know how weird their parents are, or for parents to shout from the treetops how frustrating their kids are being.

Why do they need to shout that stuff from the treetops? Who even cares?

ME!! And you just gave me an idea for the perfect name for this site!

What?

What do birds say?

Huh?

Birds! They shout from treetops. What do they say?

Um… Chirp?

Dude. No.

….twwweeet?

Yes! We call it tweeting. Shouting from the treetops.

You can’t use tweeting as the url, man.

Right. Um… Tweets? Tweeter? Twitter?

Twitter? Are you gonna call it twitting now?

No, that would be really lame. But it’s not like there are rules here. We call it “tweeting” on “Twitter.”

Let’s do it bro, this is gonna change the world!

____

Can you tell I just read One More Thing: Stories, and other Stories by BJ NovaK? What a great cultural commentary told through amazingly witty and clever short stories. Supremely entertaining and thought provoking.

The above story is how Twitter was born according to my own imagination, inspired by BJ Novak– particularly the story entitled, The Man Who Invented the Calendar.

If you want to know the real story of how Twitter was born, read Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton.