A few of my friends have recently joined Twitter and asked for advice about some of the intricacies of using the micro-blogging service.

Some of those questions have been about specific things like, “What are hashtags?” or “Who can see my Tweets?” Others have centered on more macro issues such as, “What do I do with it?”

There are about 200 million Twitter users, and many of them would answer that last question differently. My account is all about snarky responses to other people’s tweets, sharing links to interesting articles I read, offering quick observations that aren’t enough for a blog post (though sometimes they end up here), and posting links to my work.

I joined in 2008 and since then have sent out 1,347 messages. I was looking back through them today after AV asked if they stay on your account forever (they do, and also get recorded by the Library of Congress). Naturally, I was curious to see what my first post was like. It was boring, and somewhat puzzling for my first foray into the Twitterverse:

I was looking for my next job at the time, but not sure why I felt compelled to share that with the world. Since then, I think it’s become a more entertaining feed to follow.

There’s the observational stuff:

Some insight into my life:

And the constant reminder that I’m not that smart:

AV and I also talked about the trove of messages as in interesting place to research certain events. It would be fascinating to see how the Tweets unfolded as a particular event was happening, as people made conclusions and expressed opinions based on limited information and even how those things changed as more became clear. You could also compare international events looking through different lenses, such as how Americans viewed the uprising in Egypt or how Israelis and Palestinians talked about an airstrike in Gaza.

Or you could look at your ancestors and find really interesting nuggets about incredibly important milestones in their lives:

Of course, you can also do that with yourself. This seemed innocuous at the time, but given a group of people I have met since then, it would probably get me beaten up today:

Tweet carefully.