In the 1920s, Wesleyan students could use this helpful card to communicate quickly and easily with family and friends using 140 characters or less.
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In the 1920s, Wesleyan students could use this helpful card to communicate quickly and easily with family and friends using 140 characters or less.
It is very witty to compare this to Twitter. Just as the internet came out of military research, so too this 1920s joke was borrowing from the postcards sent home from the front in World War One. The standard format meant they did not have to be censored. The British called them field service postcards. In the US army they were given out by voluntary organizations like the YMCA, and I don’t think they had a standard format.
For more see http://blogs.utexas.edu/culturalcompass/2012/08/02/paul-fussell/
How fantastic to see this as I was writing a presentation this morning to deliver to my colleagues – all of whom work on the Listerine business! The more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess.