The executive class, investors, and at least some users seem to want Twitter to remove its limitations, to give new users a more uniform and curated experience, to make room for more text, more photos and videos, more reasons for casual users to spend more time in the Twitter garden.īut then why not use Facebook? Everybody is already using it anyway. Anything that loosens the limitations raises the commitment. There's no obligation to "catch up," no time commitment beyond the seconds it takes to read or write a tweet. It can be done well or poorly.Īnd it's all quick, easy to dip into and out of, flowing by all day like a river. People laugh about it, but there is a real art to writing at 140 characters. It is a singularly generative feature, which has elicited more creative uses and hacks than anyone could have predicted in advance. (Shutterstock, and me)Īlmost all of this is driven by the 140-character limitation. Weird habits, memes, and running jokes arise and disappear, conversations form, merge, and splinter, and for the most part it all happens organically, in real time, driven by users themselves. There's all kinds of hate and abuse, but there's also a lot of hilarity, solidarity, and useful knowledge sharing. I've seen many, many interesting exchanges between famous people and randos with 72 followers I can't think of any other medium where access is so democratized. But precisely because it is resistant to curation, Twitter allows for more serendipity. Twitter is not as carefully calibrated to your tastes as Facebook, so the experience will never be as consistent. Sometimes it's boring or frustrating or nasty. That's what makes it difficult to control and monetize, but also what gives it its frisson. You make the food yourself by mixing ingredients, choosing whom to follow, whom to engage, who to block or ignore. ( Shutterstock)įacebook is more and more like fast food: consistently what you like, again and again. The behaviors, habits, and tropes generated in response to those limitations are what give Twitter its unique character they are its core assets. Yet to the extent that Twitter captured lightning in a bottle, catching on among 300 million people (not a small number!), it is because of those limitations. Twitter's friendliness to new users is limited, since any user experience must be handcrafted by intentionally following people. The ability to use Twitter as a broadcast or distribution network (a "push" medium) is limited, since people only see your tweets if they have chosen to follow you. The number of other users who can be directly cc'd is limited, as they too count against the character limit. The number of photos, videos, or links that can be attached to a tweet is limited, because they all count against the character limit. Text is limited to 140 characters (somewhat arbitrarily - it was originally designed as a texting tool using SMS). What sets Twitter apart from its social media competitors is its particular limitations. yo - 112,000 tweets and counting.) Twitter is unique because of all the things it can't do But first, some thoughts on Twitter, of which I am a longtime and enthusiastic, some might say obsessive, user. It needs to become more like itself, not more like its competitors. Tim Lee is right: Twitter needs to get some self-confidence. If they want whatever Snapchat does, they have Snapchat. If they want considered essays, they already have Medium. If people want a torrent of pictures, videos, and unrestricted verbiage, they already have Facebook. Lately it has hinted at some changes, the goal of which seems to be to keep people within the "walled garden" of the app, like Facebook does with its inline stories, while allowing more text. ![]() Twitter has been the subject of much discussion lately, what with its slowing growth and stock troubles. This is a welcome change - and a much better idea than some of the cockamamie notions the struggling company has floated recently.Īs it happens, I wrote a piece in January of this year urging exactly the changes Twitter is now making. ![]() According to Bloomberg News, as early as the next few weeks, Twitter will no longer count links and images against a tweet's character count. Now, it seems, Twitter is finally set to remove this longstanding aggravation. Include both an image and a link and there are less than 100 characters left to work with.Īnd who can possibly express themselves in 100 characters?! (Ahem.) If a user includes a link or an image in a tweet, it can shave up to 23 characters off the total. Twitter users have long complained that the service's promise of 140 characters per message is not exactly true.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |