I’ll be honest. My first reaction to Twitter doubling its character count – from 140 to 280 – made me all:
I’m not alone:
Twitter users herald new character limits with 280-character howls of despair
We all have 280 characters? Well, as Shakespeare wrote, “Brevity is the soul of wit. The soul of wit is what brevity is. Brevity? Soul of wit? They’re the same thing. Like if you had brevity in one hand and the soul of wit in the other, you’d be hard pressed to tell them apart.”
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) November 8, 2017
I will NEVER use 280 characters nor will I favorite or retweet a tweet with them. THIS IS MY FIGHT SONG
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 8, 2017
I mean, for Pete’s sake, people have made an art and science out of the 140-character Tweet. Aren’t limits sometimes a good thing (think daily recommended sugar intake). Sometimes more isn’t better, it’s just too much!
And who’s asking for this? Doesn’t Twitter have bigger worries with rampant abuse, harassment and Russian bots?
Twitter says hold on a minute. They need to make their product easier to use. Character constraints impact users differently, depending on language. The 140-character limit was based on old text-messaging technology, before smartphones grew out of our palms.
For what it’s worth, Twitter claims that when it tested the larger limit, only 5% of Tweets sent were longer than 140 characters and only 2% were over 190 characters. So, theoretically, your reading experience shouldn’t change that much.
Accompanying the new higher limit is a new circle graphic that shows you, graphically, how much space you’re taking up as you type your tweet.
A few nonprofits have already embraced the new limit:
We now have 280 characters and 37 days to encourage @chase to halt the funding of #KXL how many characters can you spare to let them know it’s time to #DefundTarSands? https://t.co/QbXei4VY45
— RAN (@RAN) November 8, 2017
At least there’s now space for endless animal emojis… ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????#280characters
— Chester Zoo (@chesterzoo) November 8, 2017
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We ?? Photography#280characters— ICP (@ICPhotog) November 8, 2017
Ya’ll should have the new length by now. Have you tried it? What do you think?
Weigh in the comments. And show us your Tweets!
