For someone not well-versed in the intricacies of Twitter, something as simple as a change in character limit for posts on the site might not seem like a big deal. It’s like a change in storage limit on Google Drive or improved battery on a new iPhone.

But us Twitter users are more sensitive. All hell broke out on the social network when Twitter began rolling out 280 character tweets for some users. Most, though, hadn’t received the update, and Twitter blew up.

It’s similar to how people feel about the loss of the iPhone’s famous bezel and home button combination with the upcoming iPhone X’s edge-to-edge screen. The features may be outdated, but they’ve got a hell of a fan base.

Even if Twitter, like many strong web communities, is resistant to change, it’s right in realizing what a humongous change the tweet count is for the platform’s identity. Twitter was defined by its 140-character, bite-sized posting style, which transformed blogging from WordPress-style long form to three-line tidbits more akin to poetry than newswriting. Expanding the character limit redefines the very idea of a tweet, and goes with the service’s theme of catering to changing user needs as its use evolves over time.

Most users access Twitter via its mobile app and Twitter.com webpage, making this character limit more of an archaic relic of the past than a necessary feature. As Twitter continued to grow, the limits of tweets faded with the advent of retweeting, threading, direct replying and embedding images and video.

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Makana Chock, a communications professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a focus on media psychology, said tweets have evolved so dramatically from their original 140-character text-only format that the sudden increase in acceptable characters won’t have any dramatic effect on the platform.

“When 140 wasn’t enough, we created tweetstorms, screenshots, pictures and video,” Chock said. “Speed, content and perceived audience shape posts, not the number of available characters.”

Twitter itself is virtually unrecognizable from the site it used to be, which has a lot to do with how user interaction has changed. Retweets weren’t a native feature until enough people were wasting characters with “RT @username” that Twitter decided to add the function. Direct tweet replies weren’t supported until enough people were “@ing” their friends that Twitter created the reply feature.

As a social network, Twitter’s best business is one that adapts to changing user habits. In all likelihood, Twitter recognized that many of its users pushed the limits of the 140 characters and adapted its rules to suit the culture shift.

William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, said he sees this move as a way for Twitter to further its potential for social media dominance.

Dutton said the move may fix one of Twitter’s major issues: “reducing cryptic messages that no one can understand.”

But he predicted it won’t take long for Twitter users to adjust.

“It will still be a journalist’s dream as they try to hone their words to 280 characters,” he said.

Twitter is still seeking the mainstream success that Facebook touts, and its changing character limit demonstrates that the platform is an evolving social network on the rise. It’s easy to be nostalgic for the shorter messages that characterized Twitter’s past, but an increase to 280 characters just expands what can be posted on Twitter while still maintaining the minimalist feel that makes it so great.

It may take some time getting used to the extra few letters showing up on your timeline, but down the road, having more letters to play with will give us a chance to more effectively communicate online. There’s no better ode to an open internet than a social platform that gives you even more tools to express yourself.

Brett Weiser-Schlesinger is a senior newspaper and online journalism and information management and technology dual major. He can be reached by email at bweisers@syr.edu or on Twitter at @brettws.

Published on October 8, 2017 at 10:52 pm