--- title: Twitter at 10 History: Called the 'Cocaine of Blogging' description: The first tweet was sent on Mar. 21, 2006 canonical: https://time.com/4257932/twitter-history-early-explanation/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-21T11:00:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:49:38.956Z article:section: History og:title: Twitter at 10 History: Called the 'Cocaine of Blogging' og:description: The first tweet was sent on Mar. 21, 2006 og:url: https://time.com/4257932/twitter-history-early-explanation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ad4da1b9a7e8e03/69888ae5f887dc8572e9505f/twitter.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Illustrations Of Popular Mobile Apps And Social Media Sites og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Twitter at 10 History: Called the 'Cocaine of Blogging' twitter:description: The first tweet was sent on Mar. 21, 2006 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ad4da1b9a7e8e03/69888ae5f887dc8572e9505f/twitter.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Twitter Was Called the 'Cocaine of Blogging' After It Launched 10 Years Ago  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 21, 2016 11:00 AM UTC  People check mobile devices whilst standing against an illuminated wall bearing Twitter Inc.'s logo in this arranged photograph in London on Jan. 5, 2016. People check mobile devices whilst standing against an illuminated wall bearing Twitter Inc.'s logo in this arranged photograph in London on Jan. 5, 2016.Chris Ratcliffe—Bloomberg / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 21, 2016 11:00 AM UTC It was a fateful day exactly ten years ago, at 3:50 p.m., that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sent [the first public tweet](https://twitter.com/jack/status/20). It wasn’t a particularly evocative message (“just setting up my twttr”) but it marked the arrival of a powerful new cultural force. In the next year, thanks in part to a persuasive showing at the 2007 South by Southwest festival, where it was [named](http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1603637,00.html) the best blogging tool, Twitter had made its way into the mainstream. Twitter’s first appearance in the print pages of TIME came in April of 2007, when Lev Grossman described it as one more reason to worry about the consequences of our increasingly connected world: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [The Hyperconnected](http://time.com/vault/issue/2007-04-16/page/62/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4257932/twitter-history-early-explanation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4257932/twitter-history-early-explanation/"},"headline":"Twitter Was Called the 'Cocaine of Blogging' After It Launched 10 Years Ago","datePublished":"2016-03-21T11:00:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:49:38.956Z","description":"The first tweet was sent on Mar. 21, 2006","url":"https://time.com/4257932/twitter-history-early-explanation/","keywords":["Technology","Tech","Social Media","twitter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ad4da1b9a7e8e03/69888ae5f887dc8572e9505f/twitter.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ad4da1b9a7e8e03/69888ae5f887dc8572e9505f/twitter.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Illustrations Of Popular Mobile Apps And Social Media Sites","caption":"Illustrations Of Popular Mobile Apps And Social Media Sites","creditText":"Chris Ratcliffe—Bloomberg / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/technology/","name":"Technology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4257932/twitter-history-early-explanation/","name":"Twitter Was Called the 'Cocaine of Blogging' After It Launched 10 Years Ago"}}]}] ```