LONGER TWEETS? IS NOTHING SACRED?
140character limit, a source of comfort, is going the way of the VHS and My Space
Sure sounds like the end of an era is nigh. What’s next? A hundredth problem for Jay Z? “We will never lose that feeling ” of the 140character tweet, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says.
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
Strike three, and you’re out. Heinz has 57 varieties. It’s always darkest before the dawn. There must be 50 ways to leave your lover. Tweets can be no more than 140 characters. Uh, not so fast. Word comes this week that Twitter is likely to soon drop its sacrosanct and iconic 140-character limit. While nothing is etched in granite, USA TODAY senior technology writer Jessica Guynn was told this week that tweets up to 10,000 characters, the maximum now for direct messages on Twitter, may be permitted, and the change could come as soon as late March. The development was first reported Tuesday by tech site Re/code.
Sure sounds like the end of an era is nigh. Is nothing sacred? What’s next? A hundredth problem for Jay Z?
The 140-character limit was one of those sources of comfort, a reassuring sign of stability in turbulent times. No matter the latest crisis in the Middle East or mishegas on the campaign trail, it was always there. But now it seems destined for the dustbin of history, joining typewriters (I know. What?), phone booths, tapes and Chip Kelly.
Well, as James Taylor and J.D. Souther taught us so many years ago, nothing lasts forever.
Actually, it sounds like the new Twitter won’t look that different from the old Twitter. Only the first 140 characters will show up at first glance. But a simple click will take you to the rest of the tweet.
Of course, many tweets now include links to longer articles. Under the new system, though, you’ll be able to access all of those additional characters without leaving Twitter.
And that’s good news for Twitter, which could use some. The social media force has been plagued by disappointing growth numbers, prompting the return of co-founder Jack Dorsey as CEO to bring the tweet factory some much-needed momentum.
In a tweet Tuesday, Dorsey didn’t flatly declare the end of the 140-character limit but certainly reinforced the notion that it is coming.
He also outlined the rationale, in an effort to placate the Twitter purists who are upset about the coming change. Many Twitter fans love the concision forced by the current limit, which requires a discipline lacking in more verbose outposts on the Internet.
There are a number of workarounds that Twitter users with more to say have exploited to circumvent the limit. They include posting screenshots of longer musings and rapidfire flurries of 140-character tweets known as tweetstorms. In his tweet, Dorsey focused on the former.
First, he pointed out that the 140-character limit was not there at the birth of Twitter, but was soon implemented. “It’s become a beautiful constraint, and I love it!” he wrote. “It inspires creativity and brevity. And a sense of speed. We will never lose that feeling.”
But he also took note of the prevalence of screenshots on Twitter and the advantages they bring. In fact, his tweet itself came in the form of a screenshot.
“We’ve spent a lot of time observing what people are doing on Twitter and we see them taking screenshots of text and tweeting it,” he wrote. “Instead, what if that text... was actually text? Text that could be searched. Text that could be highlighted. That’s more utility and power.”
So, soon it seems the 140-character limit will go the way of the military draft, leaded gasoline, Constantinople, VHS and MySpace.
Let’s just hope that when the obits are written, they are respectfully short.