In today’s digital era, where everything on the internet feels permanent, a growing part of internet culture is quietly disappearing. A recent feature by The Verge highlights this unsettling reality through what it calls a “digital preservation effort,” an attempt to archive some of the funniest, strangest, and most memorable tweets before they vanish for good. The main motive of this feature is to help people remember the old Twitter.
What is the feature?
The project, described as a kind of “scrollback of Alexandria,” aims to capture iconic posts from Twitter (X) before they are deleted, made private, or simply lost in the platform’s ongoing changes.
Since Twitter (now ‘X‘) is going through a lot of content moderation changes, including features breaking and users leaving. Therefore, entire threads and viral moments are disappearing faster than expected. Even widely known posts now often survive only as screenshots or reposts.
However, when Jack Dorsey sent the very first tweet in 2006—“just setting up my twttr”—it marked the beginning of a new kind of internet communication. What followed on Twitter was not just conversation but a cultural phenomenon being created.
Why does it matter?
For over a decade, Twitter wasn’t just a social network; since it gave rise to formats like absurdist humor, viral threads,
Some tweets shaped global conversations. Others became inside jokes shared by millions. But unlike books, films, or even blogs, tweets were never designed to last.
That ephemerality is now catching up with the internet.
Digital library of funny tweets
Several people have tweeted funny things on Twitter during its earliest days, some of which are included in this feature. We have mentioned them in this article below.
capitalism liker @HumanPog” posted .@walmart i dropped my wedding band in your bargain dvd bin and the manager carla said tough shit.
Anotmanny404 @mannynotfound posted “the year is 2045. Alexa overhears you make a problematic joke and immediately alerts the US Army. They make a vlog raiding your home and no-scope sniping you in close quarters. It goes viral and a portion of the adsense revenue is donated to your families gofundme”
Aaron Patterson @tenderlove posted “I like to add � and ’ any time I submit online forms because I know that some developer is going to see it and wonder if they have a bug”
frog “Philip K. Dickgirl” kosaric @yurirando posted “tibetan foxes have the exact energy of when you go into arby’s stoned and ask about their 5 for $5 promotion, which has been gone for longer than anyone has worked there. the tibetan sand fox’s face is the face the cashier makes at you, and the face you make at the cashier”
Aparna Nancherla @aparnapkin posted “The Statue of Liberty should replace her torch with a gaslight until further notice”