Yesterday night, Twitter announced an update: its 140 character limit had been reviewed. Henceforth, Twitter users can type up to 280 characters.
Can’t fit your Tweet into 140 characters? ?
We’re trying something new with a small group, and increasing the character limit to 280! Excited about the possibilities? Read our blog to find out how it all adds up. ?https://t.co/C6hjsB9nbL
— Twitter (@Twitter) September 26, 2017
Twitter was quite ecstatic about this new update, but the best users of the app could summon was “oh, joy”. Initial reactions were negative all the way.
The 280-character limit is a terrible idea. The whole beauty of Twitter is that it forces you to express your ideas concisely (1/47)
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) September 26, 2017
Someone even said….
Nobody is going to read your stupid 280-character tweets
— Big Fish Gee (@GbemmyG) September 27, 2017
(Wow. Strong feelings there.)
Until this – the first of its kind 280 character tweet, posted by co-founder of Twitter himself, Jack Dorsey.
This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence! https://t.co/TuHj51MsTu
— jack (@jack) September 26, 2017
Swell, right? Guess again.
A copy editor put his skills to good use and slashed the 280 character tweet down to 179.
https://twitter.com/brianrbarone/status/912788388150960130
Twitter users couldn’t be more pleased:
— Jeri McNeill ?♀️ (@bajshagirl) September 26, 2017
@KristinNHiggs Closest thing to that edit button we'll get for a while…
— Lee Gibson (@leegibsonmusic) September 27, 2017
That’s perfect lol
— ? Kristin Higgs (@KristinNHiggs) September 27, 2017
Strunk and White would be proud. #omitneedlesswords
— Erika Luckert (@ErikaLuckert) September 27, 2017
The power of #editing to get to the core strength of a written thought #140isfinethankyou @jack #edittweet more useful
— dlw2 (@drdlwillis11) September 27, 2017
How to Say Nothing in 280 Characters ??? #righton
— Ana Espinoza ? (@AnnaDarlin) September 26, 2017
280 is also a plain arbitrary number. what is the next step? 1000 characters? endless characters?
— ?? L E T I S S I A ?? (@letuissia) September 27, 2017
@jack @biz More words. More time to read. More waste of time. More fake news. More trolls. Less knowledge.
LESS IS MORE.
— SupraBo (@SupraBo_Here) September 27, 2017
@fanzilferoz twitter singlehandedly taught a verbose girl how to be concise and that is a very important skill in writing/speech/thinking
— myra (@myrafaroooqui) September 27, 2017
But then, there’s this:
Brian Barone gets RT’d
Me: (taking a a drag of a cigarette) there is a name I haven’t heard in years.Hope all is well. pic.twitter.com/u1yQuJOcft
— Chris Albes (@ChrisAlbes) September 26, 2017
And a request
All I want is 144 characters, and only because it's a more beautiful number
— Dr Elisabeth Kosters ???? (@EC_Kosters) September 27, 2017
She did one better
139 characters pic.twitter.com/WkfdXL8oLh
— Caitlin Kelly (@caitlin__kelly) September 26, 2017
Plus we can’t help but wonder
What's trump going to do now with 280 words to spare. It's even more dangerous
— Jalal Al-Yawer (@JYawer) September 27, 2017
Back to the matter
oh yeah! ?? pic.twitter.com/Y90aQcu1Me
— Jose Rey Y. Alo®️ (@josereyalo) September 27, 2017
Stay 140, people. ?
Reformed social media monitoring spirit
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