The OFD (old fuddy, duddy) doesn’t know if he’s reassured by this or taken aback. On Tuesday, Twitter decided to double the limit of characters allowed in a tweet from 140 to 280, sort of. Actually only a small percentage of people on Twitter were chosen to have the privilege of being able to essentially double their tweets.
I’ve always wondered why Twitter messages were called tweets. Shouldn’t they be called “twits?” Then again I guess tweet is better. But if they’re tweets, shouldn’t it be called “Tweeter.”
Anyway I never thought millennials had the attention span to go past 140 characters. And with all the acronyms they use, I would think 140 characters would be plenty. But now apparently millennials need more than 140 characters to get their point across, which I admit I don’t know is a good thing or not.
I say millennials because in my experience Twitter is generally the choice of communication for millennials while Facebook is the choice of communication for people my age.
I have to admit way back in the olden days of 2010 I didn’t care much for Facebook and Twitter. I thought e-mail was plenty good enough communication. But I realized this was frustrating to those who wanted to stay in touch with me who didn’t have my e-mail address.
Now I would say when it comes to Facebook and Twitter they’re useful tools in which there’s more good than bad. As long as they’re STW (stuff that works).
Anyway I’m fired up to go on Twitter now. I just hope 280 characters are enough.
— Charles Whisnand
