Writer and actor  recalls how derisive many people were about Twitter when it first entered the public consciousness. “Many jokes were made,” he said, “about ‘why would I ever want to hear about what sandwich someone ate today?’”

“The early detractors failed to note is that Twitter, while faddish, was not only a fad: it is a tool, one with almost as many unique uses as there are humans to take it up,” Hodgman says. “Twitter offered a very restrictive set of protocols that awaken the imagination: what can I do with 140 characters that will be meaningful to others? The solution has proven to be pretty much endless. And do you know what? If the right person is telling the story, I’ll read a tweet stream of sandwiches all day long.”

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