According to a report by Sky News, twittering is not a new up-to-the-minute technological advance, but a natural extension of an old product - the postcard.
In the days before micro-blogging, text messages and social networking sites, the Edwardians were using the humble postcard to abbreviate their thoughts and opinions to one another.
Introduced in its present form in 1902, the picture postcard, containing an image on one side and room for writing on the other, became an instant hit, according to a study by Lancaster & Manchester Metropolitan universities.
Almost six billion postcards - an average of 200 per person - were sent in Britain between 1901 and 1910, reveals study authors Drs Julia Gillen and Nigel Hall.
The cost per postcard was a ha'penny, instead of the usual penny for a letter and, with up to 10 postal deliveries a day in the big cities, users could write and answer notes quickly and cheaply.
Like Twitter, which restricts users to 140 characters per "tweet", postcard writers only have a limited amount of space to pen a message. So I guess not a lot has changed really! Except the postal service has got slower and more expensive!!!
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