Twitter experimenting with a possible expansion of its tweet character limit has brought some interesting reactions. Some suggest that this would be a mistake and ruin the Twitter experience (e.g., innovation and tech today).
I am a supporter of the proposed expansion to 280 characters. I base this on two observations:
- Twitter is often used for purposes for which it is not well suited. I see Twitter chats as frequently lacking substance and quite inefficient for the time expended (my analysis). Expanding the potential length of a tweet would allow participants to explain themselves in greater depth.
- I don’t experience annoyance others must in a scrolling experience. The logic that if you have more to say just author two tweets (see the link above) makes no more sense to me that proposing that if you have little to say just stop when you have said what you are able to express. Of the things that annoy me about the Twitter experience (e.g., autoposting long lists of tweets) and increase my scroll time, I find the length of individual tweets pretty much irrelevant.
There are some options to Twitter that allow great length (e.g., Mastodon). I regard Mastodon as a much better experience, but without the following Twitter has attracted by establishing itself as the big player in the microblog space. Inertia is difficult to overcome when it comes to online services.