The Library of Congress Quits Twitter | The New Yorker

From a timely Twitter reality check:

"Last Tuesday, the Library of Congress announced that it, too, has had enough, and politely recused itself. “The Library now has a secure collection of tweet text, documenting the first 12 years (2006-2017) of this dynamic communications channel—its emergence, its applications and its evolution,” Gayle Osterberg, the director of communications for the library, wrote. “Today, we announce a change in collections practice for Twitter. Effective Jan. 1, 2018, the Library will acquire tweets on a selective basis—similar to our collections of web sites.” The phrasing was elegant, but the sentiment was nonetheless familiar: “Quitting this shit!!!!”"

Final paragraph:

"That the Library of Congress has now chosen to be more selective about its work feels perceptive, and germane to our moment. Healthy consumption of the Internet requires curation. Though reading widely and expansively offline remains crucial, the present Internet deluge still means we all have to make serious choices about what we let in. (Some people call this “self-care.”) The downsizing can be nutritive. “Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing,” William S. Burroughs once said. Maybe the library’s choice is a significant sign of our times—an admission that sometimes everything is too much."

The Library of Congress Quits Twitter | The New Yorker