After nine years of financial and social success Twitter is flirting with the idea of altering their signature feature and allowing users to go beyond the 140-character limit.
In 2006, in the midst of the social media revolution, Jack Dorsey, an undergraduate student at New York University, pondered the idea of having a short messaging service (SMS) that would communicate to a small group of people through the internet.
He envisioned an interface that would provide the user a convenient look at what is going on around them through the use of concise status updates. His innovation spawned the popular social media site “Twitter.”
And at the core of his idea was a 140-character limit to the statuses, later dubbed a “tweets”, that forced users not only to be brief but to adapt to a new shorthand notation of internet slang. However, all of that may change.
It is still unclear whether or not the change would be as simple as adding 10 to 20 characters or if it would entail more complex changes.
There have been some suggestions that a limit on characters will be eliminated altogether. This would be a radical change considering that brevity has been the website’s proverbial calling card since the beginning.
“To me, Twitter is a snapshot of information, and that’s why I like it. If the character limit was increased it would eliminate what I think is the purpose of Twitter,” says Maddie Parvin, 19, accounting major of Quakertown.
This is the most common issue with the proposed change. The definition, according to Dorsey, of the word ‘twitter’ is a, “short burst of inconsequential information.” To remove the character limit altogether would be taking the “short burst” out of the product; essentially retreating on their original mission.
Sabrina Petovic, 19, marketing major of Quakertown argues, “I think the point of twitter is to share short, to the point thoughts. If they increased the character limit it would be just like Facebook.”
Facebook provides a good forum for strong debate and detailed interaction; that aspect is non-existent on Twitter. By removing the character limit Twitter would be lending itself to a whole new style of discussion. That would be considered an advantage for the company.
Kristina Eck, 20, criminal justice major of Harleysville says, “I’m used to Twitter being so quick, I can update myself on a couple hours’ worth of news in a matter of seconds. On Facebook I feel like I’m sifting through so much and getting so little.”
To increase or eliminate the 140-character limit would be to cut ties with the most distinguishing aspect of Twitter, and for that very reason it seems like most users are opposed to this change.
On the flip side, Twitter is selling the idea as a way to give users more freedom and freshen up site; sacrificing the very principle that the site was built on is a decision that, good or bad, will alter the course of one of the most popular social networking sites forever.