A grand experiment: What one thing would you tell your younger self?

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“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.” – Jean-Paul Sartre

In the few years I’ve lived, there were countless mistakes I’ve made. Now, I’m not at all a person of regret. I stand up, fall down, get up and fall down again. I’m sure you are the same, that’s what has got you this far in life.

And yet, every so often I get this urge of thinking “if I only knew this a few years ago”.  That one bit of advice to face that challenge, finish that exam, get that job or start that business with a better edge. Looking back at the situation, it all became clear, but looking forward it wasn’t at all.

But wait, there is more. What if you could give that exact piece of advice that you couldn’t give yourself to someone else. And what if that someone else would be the world?

Here at Buffer, we thought that this could work as social experiment never done before. Your most important life lesson learnt, that you would tell your younger self available to the world. Anonymously. On Twitter.

How can you share your one thing with others?

This is a social experiment we are launching today, that has never been done before (I believe). Anyone in the world can add a Tweet to a public Twitter account. The name of the Twitter account is @AYoungerMe.

Yes, so anywhere you are in the world, you’ll be able to add your one lesson that you wish you knew when you were younger. All you have to do is send an email to the address below and anything in the subject line and is under 140 characters will be your Tweet. Here is an example:

ayoungerme@to.bufferapp.com

 

 

The way this works, is that it will get added to a queue in a Buffer account specifically created for this experiment with everyone else’s Tweets. From the queue, once every hour a new Tweet from you or anyone who has emailed something in will be posted. The way your email gets added is automatically via Buffer’s email feature. 

We are super excited to see what happens with this. Email your Tweet in and I hope you can help us spread the word and share this post.

Keep up to date with what happens with this account: 

Photocredit: Irina Werning

Update: Over 100 Tweets added in the last hour

Wow, it has really been amazing to see how many amazing insights have already been added. Here are some of the top picks from the @AYoungerMe Twitter account:

 

 

 

 

 

When will my update get posted?

A lot of people got in touch to ask when their added Tweets will be posted. All updates will get queued up automatically in the Buffer account for @AYoungerMe. This happens via Buffer’s email feature. The timings for when they go out on this account are on the full hour for 24 hours, so 24 Tweets a day.

There is a backlog of around 2-4 days right now, so you will most likely see your Tweets go out in a few days. Just follow @AYoungerMe and you’ll see it.

Keep them coming, this is amazing.

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  • http://myOnePage.com/Oo Oo Nwoye

    Shouldn’t the person need to have a buffer account? And use the same email he used to register?

    Or how will you know the Twitter account of the sender?

    • LeoWid

      Hi Oo, great to see you here.

      Oh right, so it’ll all get posted via the @ayoungerme Twitter account, so no Buffer account required. Check out the feed here, some really cool Tweets already: http://twitter.com/ayoungerme

      • http://myOnePage.com/Oo Oo Nwoye

        Cool! Buffering my own in a bit.
        —————
        Oo Nwoye

        • LeoWid

          awesome man, looking forward to it! :)

  • Michael Q Todd

    Emailing! Awesome initiative guys

    • LeoWid

      awesome, looking forward to it Michael! :)

  • http://philipbenton.com/ Philip Benton

    Love the idea.

    • LeoWid

      awesome Philip! :)

  • http://bretthard.in/ Brett Hardin

    Awesome idea Leo! Already sent mine. :)

    • LeoWid

      very cool Brett, can’t wait to see it published! :)

  • http://twitter.com/Silver_vic Vic Silverman

    Stop talking. Listen

  • https://www.facebook.com/DakinAssociates Shaun Dakin

    fun !

  • http://www.facebook.com/kerenlerner Keren Lerner

    Sent mine – trying not to obsessively check as I know it’s been Buffered! So exciting!

    • LeoWid

      Haha, exactly, it’s quite difficult not to sometimes, there is a queue of over 100 in there now, so it’ll be a few days! :)

  • http://livetheneweconomy.com/ Mike

    Cool! Posting mine now!

    • LeoWid

      nice, that’s awesome Mike, looking forward to yours!

  • http://www.epicenterlanguages.com.mx Aaron Nelson

    This is a really cool idea guys. I’m in, and I’m sharing it with my Twitter friends. :)

    • LeoWid

      Awesome, thanks a ton Aaron, it’s really blowing up right now! :)

  • Amy1306

    Love this idea!

    • LeoWid

      awesome!

  • http://twitter.com/tomuky Tom Davis
    • LeoWid

      Hi Tom, yes, sort of.

      Here, no one manually adds a Tweet, it all happens via the Buffer email feature. Once you email it in automatically it just gets added. check it out here http://bufferapp.com/guides/email

      • http://twitter.com/tomuky Tom Davis

        And @ayoungerme actually has a purpose as opposed to @anybodytweet is for anything under the sun.

        • LeoWid

          yes, really hope so. The Tweets coming through it so far are really amazing!

  • Tammy McLeod

    Great idea!

  • suronjit chakraborty

    test

  • http://twitter.com/autography Wayne Hall

    Love this idea – feels like post secret.

  • http://twitter.com/gavin_morrice Gavin Morrice

    Love it!

  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewswank Andrew Swank

    I don’t believe it’s been done this way before, but Sweden allowed random citizens to post from it’s account. Sweet idea!

  • http://www.facebook.com/james.jdsharp James Douglas Sharp

    adding your twitter handle to the end of the line looks like a good way to be notified

  • Meredith Allison @RockTique

    I absolutely love this idea!! I’m wondering if you’ll consider adding more tweets per day as I can see this is really going to be a hit!

  • http://bkvirendra.github.com/ Virendra

    Awesome idea Leo !!

    Its surely gonna be a huge hit !