Why It Matters That Jack Dorsey Sold His First Tweet

Time itself is now for sale

The world’s first tweet is now for sale as an NFT, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced last week. In an article about the news for CNN Business, writer Jazmin Goodwin details how NFTs (that is, non-fungible tokens) have become a way to buy and sell what were once unique and ephemeral spots of time—not only Jack Dorsey’s primal tweet (bids for which have now reached $2.5 million), but videos of famous dunks by Lebron James, and innumerable other “moments” that bear commodification.

Time itself is now for sale, and it surprises us not at all.

In ancient Europe, a visit from a rich, famous, extremely learned, powerful, or holy person was a matter of such consequence that it often called for a series of commemorative coins. Stamping a profile on metal was a means to freeze time, or at least slow it down. Today, such coins are collectibles — to be safely preserved as opposed to circulated.

Classics scholars have noted the ancient Greek word for these freshly stamped, newly minted, time-petrifying precious metal advent coins. They were called parousia, which roughly translated means arrival. The word was related to the Greek for the sudden appearance of messengers on a theatrical stage (perhaps the ancient equivalent of a Lebron James dunk?)…