From AOL to Twitter: What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Dinosaur (noun) 1. a person or thing that is outdated or has become obsolete because of failure to adapt to changing circumstances.                      --Oxford Dictionary

“You’ve got mail!”

That’s what my computer “said” to me almost thirty years ago. “You’ve got mail” was the chipper announcement on the first popular internet company—AOL--in the early nineteen nineties. Your emails were just a click away. Twenty-eight years later I still have my original AOL email address.  And I yes, I still use it.  And yes, some of my younger friends shake their heads in disbelief when they realize the email address I’ve written to them from.

Yes. I am a dinosaur.

AOL of course stands for “America Online” and back in the infancy of the internet it was the place to be. Cutting edge. Innovative. Cool even. When I signed up for my AOL account in the summer of 1994, it was amazing. Then I was a rare breed. I was the earliest of early adopters. In 1994 barely 5 million Americans even had a consumer email account like AOL. Email and surfing the net was mostly the province of academics and the government and corporations.

You actually had to pay a monthly fee to AOL and dial in to the service using a telephone modem.  You knew you were connected when a random series of beeps, squawks, and buzzes ended and then if you had email, you’d hear that amazing welcome. “YOU’VE GOT MAIL!” and always spoken in the cheeriest of tones.  

At the height of its popularity and success AOL was worth some $200 billion and boasted in excess of 35 million folks who used the platform.  Today—well AOL is more of a punchline than anything, a quaint leftover item from the good old days of computers.  It still limps along. But it no longer tells me “You’ve got mail!” when I sign in these days.  

That’s how it often is with big tech. So many companies here today and gone tomorrow.  Red hot and on fire in the present and then ice cold and out of business oh so soon. That COMPAQ computer I had in 1994…that company bought Digital Computers in 1998, which was once the largest private employer in Massachusetts and is now gone. Hewlett Packard (HP) computers then bought the whole conglomeration in 2002. HP is now one of those fading computer companies along with IBM. Both were once blue-chip companies. I worked in high tech in the nineties. Every single company I was employed by is now gone.  Prime. Data General. Sun Microsystems. Honeywell. Digital. 

Perhaps more than any other industry high tech is known for dramatic ultra-fast growth but also its head spinning super quick decline.  The darling of Wall Street and the public one year might be consigned to the trash heap of history the next. Makes me wonder what our time’s AOL might be.  Facebook? Google? Or how about Twitter? Will our kids be tweeting in 28 years or will this soon to be Elon Musk owned company become the next AOL?

Is Musk’s $44 billion purchase a savvy investment or is Twitter more smoke and mirrors than solid enterprise? Yes, it boasts 217 million daily active users and yes, if you could monetize infamy and drama, then Twitter might actually be worth what Musk is paying for it. Or not. There is the fact that ten percent of its users produce eighty percent of its tweets, meaning the number of actually active folks on that platform is relatively small. Since Twitter was introduced in 2006, its not been a moneymaker, not even close. Since 2010 its lost $4 billion and turned a profit in only two of the past twelve years.

On Twitter can be found both the profound and the profane, the fluff and the destructive. Consider the fact that the ten most followed Twitter accounts are two politicians, one soccer player, a business tycoon and six entertainers. That’s kind of lightweight. Want to witness the worst of human behavior? Bullying and racism and misogyny and the unchecked power of the mob? Check out Twitter.  The place where some of the January 6^th insurrection was planned, coordinated, and promoted, and by folks at the highest level of government too. Twitter is a place where just about anyone can use the platform to spread misinformation about COVID. Or the “danger” of vaccines.  

You can see I’m no great fan of Twitter and I’ll probably never have an account. It is just too ugly and weird a place for me to visit. That might be my tech dinosaur credentials showing. For those who love Twitter they tell me there is no better place to find the latest news, hear the latest celebrity gossip, or share the latest opinion.

Wither Twitter? Who knows?

But my faith teaches me the great gift of perspective, seeing the long arc of human history as the truth of our existence.  Human enterprises like Twitter always rise and most often eventually fall. What is seemingly so valuable today might tomorrow be lost to memory and oblivion.  God alone stays forever.

Everything else fades. All of our of the moment fads. All of our human drama. All of our cultural chatter about seemingly “important” news like a multi-billionaire buying a social media company for a personal play toy I suppose. But good luck Elon. You might just have purchased the next Amazon. Or the next AOL.  Time will tell.

And by the way: “You’ve got tweets!”