Let¡¯s face it, Twitter is a mess right now. At the very least, some may argue that it¡¯s not as bad as Facebook, but that¡¯s not a very high bar. Yet when the platform was first conceptualised close to fifteen years ago, it was so innocent, and pure. And oh so naive.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey - Reuters
Earlier this week, the company¡¯s handle posted a picture from the year 2005. It¡¯s the very first sketch drawn by CEO Jack Dorsey, conceptualizing what Twitter¡¯s UI might look like. A rough drawing on a simple legal pad, the photo is a bittersweet remembrance of a time before trolls and abusers had such easy access to public, anonymous digital weaponry.
The sketch shows a ¡®status¡¯ bar where users could inform followers of what they were doing, watching, or reading. Below it, followers could see the name, email address, and phone number linked to the handle.?
While Twitter¡¯s UI has come a long way in 13 years, unfortunately so has Twitter¡¯s user base. These days you get equal parts heartwarming post and vile filth. You¡¯re just as likely to see intelligent discourse on current affairs as you are rumour mongering. Hopefully, that¡¯s a problem that won¡¯t take another decade to fix.