According to Tom Standage, digital editor at The Economist and author of the forthcoming book “Writing on the Wall: Social Media — The First 2,000 Years,“ social media isn’t a decade-old fashion. via Social Networking in the 1600s - NYTimes.com
It’s a 4+ century trend, launching in Middle Eastern and British coffee houses, many of which incubated new businesses, universities, and economic institutions like the London Stock Exchange. Classics like The Wealth of Nations" were penned in these original social media venues.
What we’re seeing on Twitter is a lively replication of an already proven model, including the same arrogant ridicule of the original coffee houses as the ruin of youth and the greatest bane to society. It’s good to honor magnificent traditions as never before.