Life, In Digital

I wrote a book on Twitter. Well, to be more clear: I wrote a book using Twitter.

A year ago, using 140bio.com, I had all of my tweets printed into a book called, @lizzerb: a microbiography. It’s 160 pages of all of my tweets from the very first tweet:

“excited about birthday dinner! logan’s steakhouse…yummm” Thu Apr 02 22:29:26 2009

to one a year later:

“Birthday = family, Starbucks, pedicure, sushi, shopping, boyfriend, P.F. Changs, puppies & sleep. It was a great day!!” Sat Apr 03 03:39:22 2010

Now, why would I want to do this? For $18.99, why not? It’s pretty cool to have all of your tweets printed into a book. It’s definitely got that novelty factor and has sparked several conversations with friends and co-workers.

Recently, I’ve been looking for a Facebook equivalent. I wanted to be able to take all of my online conversations and preserve them in a tangible format. There’s something to be said for sitting down and flipping through a book. It’s like going back and reading your journal. It has all of your thoughts, frustrations, celebrations, and commentary on life. Especially when you tweet and update your Facebook status as often as I do about personal and professional experiences; this book would be my journal. It would show my life. If (Heaven forbid) Facebook were to close down overnight, all of my status would be lost. I’d have no record of those microjournaling updates.

At first all I found was this and this, but neither were really what I wanted. Then, I found Rachel Cunliffe at Social Archivist. She’s been working on the same concept and created the answer I’ve been searching for! Rachel, a blog and community site designer at cre8d design, created a “semi-automated service which creates a physical diary rich with photos, comments and memories” from Facebook. I still can’t believe how perfectly it matches what I’ve been wanting. Like This Book launched in January 2011 and can be professionally printed for $14.95. In the press release for Like This Book, here is what Rachel had to say was her inspiration:

Even if I have fool-proof back-ups of my status updates on my computer or online, that doesn’t leave me a user-friendly way to reminisce over my life or leave something for my kids to flip through one day. Life on the internet is geared for right now and often not for the distant future.

This is something I am definitely going to purchase. It is great for yourself or as a gift for those friends that are addicted to Facebook. Make your own book here and like it on Facebook here.

Tags: 140bio, @lizzerb, cre8d design, Facebook, Journaling, Life In Digital, Like This Book, Rachel Cunliffe, Social Archivist, Twitter