Save Us All, 280 Characters Is Like A Dumpster Fire We Never Asked For
I don't know about you but 140 characters are sufficient.
You've probably heard the fuss around Twitter's breaking news on adding an additional 140 characters to our lives. If this is your first time hearing it, I'm sorry I had to be the one to break it to you.
There are no mixed feelings here.
Twitter is trying to stay cutting edge but this update leaves little to be desired.
There are probably countless other updates, people who use Twitter, would rather. For example, shaming those whom auto direct message me. When it happens in my DM, a Gif of a woman ringing a bell is auto-directed back with the caption: "Shame. Shame. Shame".
Plopping another 140 characters in a tweet sounds nice in theory. "Oh, more room to...."?? You fill in the blank because I am drawing one.
140 characters are sufficient because it requires you to say what you mean not what you sorta think you mean.
- It requires you to get your point across in a more succinct fashion
- It meant you couldn't dilly dally around your point
- It meant you couldn't stuff a bunch of hashtags into your tweet without coming off like a douchebag
It also forces you to be creative with how you used the platform, as no platform is alike. It's similar to traveling to another country and standing out like Sheldon Cooper (from Big Bang) at a pep rally.
Twitter folk, can tell when you're not from around here.
Hence the birth of Twitter threads:
Step 1.
- Tweet
Step 2.
- Reply to your previous tweet
Step 3.
- Repeat Step 2 until your thoughts are completed
This allows you to use all the characters you want to form an ongoing story. It's engaging and indicates you're tweeting real time, not a bot.
You would think as a Content Writer I would be ecstatic for the extra character leg room. But alas, no, it's the main reason I came to Twitter in the first place. There are already large chunks of content on the web swimming around. Sometimes you need information distilled to you in mini digestible forms.
Can I get a sample before I consume the whole pie and find out I don't like Rhubarb?
In conclusion, what I'll miss the most are the quick-witted tweets, cheeky punchlines, and hot-button one-liners. If you need more than 140 characters to express yourself, perhaps this dumpster needs more gasoline.