Argus readers helped to make a piece of history by adding snapshots of their daily lives to the county’s Mass Observation archive.

In a modern spin on the archive, which recorded ordinary lives in Britain from 1937 onwards, The Argus asked people to use social networking site Twitter to Tweet details of what they were doing on Wednesday.

The contributions were then compiled and will be added to the archive – along with diaries written by members of the public – 73 years after the archive was first launched.

Tweets from Argus followers included one from “deedyi”

who said: “Badminton this morning. Blogging this pm.

Meal at Strada this evening followed by Macbeth at Theatre Royal.”

“Mockduck” wrote: “Walked to work listening to This American Life; clear blue skies, seagulls on roofs. People gathering on Level – circus going up?”

“Ricard” added: “Keyboards, phones, conversations, grey skies, good cheer, ordinary office day, despite extraordinary political circumstances.”

Professor Dorothy Sheridan, director of the Mass Observation Archive at the University of Sussex, said newtechnology had helped make collecting data for the archive easier.

She said: “The original Mass Observation (MO) relied on the postal system to keep in touch with the national panel of volunteer observers. Instructions went out by letter right through the Second World War and into the 1950s.

“When we called for the May 12 diaries this week we used only electronic methods so it was fast, immediate and cheap.

“This is a new departure for us as we hope to reach people who might not normally volunteer to take part in MO. So far we have received 200 diaries and more are coming in all the time.”

The Brighton Festival has asked three public figures – novelist Margaret Drabble, author and barrister Phillippe Sands and former Labour MP Oona King – to detail the way they spend their day. They will share their diaries, and engage in a wider discussion on how the individual voice helps shape history, at a sold-out event at the Pavilion Theatre in New Road on May 23.

Read the Tweets sent to The Argus at www.theargus.co.

uk/leisure/brighton_festival_ 2010/festival_news/mass_obser vation.