I don\u2019t suppose your parents wrote down (or recorded?) your first words, did they? Or perhaps you actually remember them yourself; a babble that elicited tears of joy, and cries of \u201co-o-o-o-ohhh! You said your first w-o-r-d! I must phone your grandma\/auntie\/probation officer!\u201d<\/p>\n
Most people\u2019s first word is \u201cmama\u201d, and naturally mum gets excited because it was her that baby recognized or called for first.<\/p>\n
SPOILER! The word \u201cmama\u201d comes from the \u201cma ma\u201d sound that babies make. \u201cDa da\u201d and \u201cpa pa\u201d need more lingual dexterity than \u201cma ma\u201d, so it makes sense that mother will be honoured with baby\u2019s first appellative utterance. Apparently, Amelia Earhart was an exception to this sweeping generalization\u2014her first word was \u201cPapa\u201d; perhaps she was bottle-fed (her father had struggles with alcohol). Other celebrities have reportedly come out with stranger first words\u2014Russell Brand\u2019s were \u201cDon\u2019t do that\u201d, and George Orwell\u2019s opening shot was \u201cBeastly\u201d.<\/p>\n
More attention is normally paid to people\u2019s last words than their first, if for no other reason than the story behind \u201cBugger Bognor\u201d (no matter how apocryphal) is infinitely more interesting than the story behind \u201cmama\u201d (although \u201cbeastly\u201ds back story isn\u2019t too boring).<\/p>\n
A person\u2019s first words on Facebook or Twitter provide others with their first (cyber-) impression of that person. Some will dissect that first online utterance looking for clues to the person\u2019s intellect, style, tone, outlook on life and many other facets of that person. The fact that on Twitter at least they only have 140 characters to dissect is inescapable, and to assess an entire personality on such scant evidence is akin to assessing the national persona of the USA based on a trip to Las Vegas. (Oh wait\u2026)<\/p>\n
What if social media had been available a hundred years ago? A thousand? More? What words of wisdom or assurance (or otherwise) might have been tweeted? (Beware\u2014non-politically-correct thoughts follow!)<\/p>\n
Taking Mrs. L. to the @FordTheatre<\/span> to see #Our American Cousin<\/span>. Should be a great evening!<\/p>\n @AbeLincoln<\/strong><\/p>\n Said I\u2019d give my right arm to take Santa Cruz #CanaryIslands<\/span> yesterday. I did!<\/p>\n @LordNelson<\/strong><\/p>\n Good mtg w\/ @AddyHitler<\/span> today. #MunichAgreement<\/span> Peace in our time.<\/p>\n @NChamberlain<\/strong><\/p>\n OMG! Just found out mum was ravaged by the #BloodyRomans<\/span>! @RealPFJ<\/span> here I come!<\/p>\n @HeebeeBrian (Cohen)<\/strong><\/p>\n I tawt I taw a puddy tat! @Sylvester<\/span> #lolcatz<\/span><\/p>\n @TweetyPie<\/strong><\/p>\n Off to #Hastings #Battle<\/span> tomorrow lads. Lets give the English #rosbif<\/span> one in the eye!<\/p>\n @BastardBill<\/strong><\/p>\n Wah deed Guillaume bring uz to Angleterre? Ze food is crap et ze fazzahs smell of elderberries. #battle #hastings<\/span><\/p>\n @AlainLeRoux<\/strong><\/p>\n Booked appointmt w\/ optometrist @sharpsight<\/span>. Great guys, good service. Just need to get rid of #NormanInvaders<\/span> first.<\/p>\n @HaroldTheKing<\/strong><\/p>\n Stop by #Bostonharbor<\/span> for all you can drink iced #tea. 10pm rain or shine (or snow).<\/p>\n @SunzOvLibberty<\/strong><\/p>\n Taking my buddies @Brutus<\/span> and @Longinus<\/span> out for a beer or fifteen tonight. CU at the @GladiatorsHead<\/span> 7pm.<\/p>\n @CeasarJules<\/strong><\/p>\n Ha ha! Look out @Bond007<\/span> my #lolcat<\/span> has *the* worst gas and will fart in your general direction if you try anything. #Thunderbowel<\/span><\/p>\n @Num1Blofeld<\/strong><\/p>\n On second thoughts, perhaps it\u2019s best that Twitter and its social media buddies weren\u2019t available back in the day. Who knows how history might have changed? The American settlers might have been so busy exchanging lolcat pictures with the local natives that they didn\u2019t pay attention to the British tax law changes. Or maybe Julius Caesar would have been able to patch things up with his buddies and thus avoid his own version of the night of the long knives.<\/p>\n Is it just coincidence that \u201cSM\u201d stands for both \u201cSocial Media\u201d and \u201cSado-Masochism\u201d?<\/p>\n Do you have any thoughts on tweets famous people in the past might have tweeted? Feel free to share via the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don\u2019t suppose your parents wrote down (or recorded?) your first words, did they? Or perhaps you actually remember them yourself; a babble that elicited tears of joy, and cries of \u201co-o-o-o-ohhh! You said your first w-o-r-d! I must phone your grandma\/auntie\/probation officer!\u201d Most people\u2019s first word is \u201cmama\u201d, and naturally mum gets excited because it was her that baby… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[247,248,241,667],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fake","tag-first-words","tag-last-words","tag-social-media","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1547,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions\/1547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On Second Thoughts…<\/h1>\n
Final Thought…<\/h1>\n
Your Turn<\/h1>\n