Twitter started as a social media platform that allowed people to Tweet up to 140 Characters. Users can interact in their tweets and also reply to other people's comments on their tweets. GIFs and pictures are also allowed in the platform that was founded in 2006. Now eleven years old, Twitter's investors are worried about the declining value of the social networking site. The solution that the administrators found was to double the length of the tweets which was originally only up to 140 characters to 280 characters.
Why would they try to increase character limit?
According to Twitter, the reason why they wanted to increase the character limit was to let the users freely tweet without having to cram all of their thoughts within 140 characters. They said that people from Japan, Korea, and China, need fewer characters to express what they want, thus tweet more frequently. They plan to give the same freedom to people who use the English alphabet in writing tweets. With this, Twitter thinks that there will be more frequent tweets from users because they are not restrained by the character limit.
How are users reacting?
Twitter was known for its brevity since it was founded and people started using it. Users who have been tweeting for years have expressed mixed reactions regarding the 280 character tweet.
To the majority of users, increasing the character limit would compromise what Twitter has been known for all these years which is their brevity. Sarcastic Tweets and memes are not uncommon in Twitter with regards to the changes. People jokingly said that the Japanese people could easily fit a light novel in a 280 character tweet.
What tweets will look like with the 280 character limit pic.twitter.com/g2EopSXTle
— Darth Vader (@DepressedDarth) September 26, 2017
Some people also tried to look on the brighter side of things saying they can rant more about their lives or write a lot of none sense. Other people stated that increasing the character limit would give more room for the bullies to be jerks.
President Donald Trump is a frequent topic regarding increasing the character limit because they think he will really make use of the extra characters knowing how he loves to use Twitter.
280 character limit will at least make it easier for me to fit the words “Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title” into my tweets more often.
— Dramatic DDT (@DramaticDDT) September 26, 2017
One person tweeted that increasing the character limit would be advantageous especially for literate people. The point being that if you have a character limit to adhere to, you tend to use shortcuts and abbreviations or slangs. The tweet said "Perhaps if Twitter increased the Tweet character limit from 140 to 256 or 280, then literate people would find it easier to use! ".
Perhaps if Twitter increased the Tweet character limit from 140 to 256 or 280, then literate people would find it easier to use! 🎓
— Maximilian Volendra (@aka_MaxVolendra) September 26, 2017
