the.com/timeline

a straight line we draw through chaos and call it understanding.

means A graphical or written sequence of events arranged in the order they happened, used to show how things unfold over time.

from A transparent compound of "time" and "line" — "time" from Old English tīma (a span or season), and "line" from Latin linea, "a string of flax" and so a drawn thread. The word itself is a relatively modern coinage, appearing in the late 19th or early 20th century when people grew fond of plotting history as a straight measured rule. Its social-media sense — the endless scroll of posts — is a 21st-century descendant, the same straight line now running vertically off the bottom of your screen.

latest invention
The 1700s gave us the first visual timelines.
physics says
Time runs faster at your head than feet.
social media
Twitter killed the chronological feed in 2016.
deep time
Human history is one second of Earth's day.
the.com · every word