Tweeting: Less Annoying, More Evolved

People use social media as a tool for self-reflection and sharing, but sometimes people are overly reflective or dramatic because they're seeking attention or validation. We all have that friend who posts a new picture of her cat every day or writes status updates like "Wow such a bad day, I just want to crawl under a rock". Twitter's design is different from other types of social media because while it allows the user to share, it is also demands they be concise. The 140 character limit inherently eliminates some of the nuisances I find in social media, like over-sharing about your kid's first poop or uninformed ramblings about politics.

Fig.1 Political ramblings on Facebook

Don't get me wrong, sharing opinions, updates on your kid, and pictures of your cat do contribute to online identity construction, and helps you stay in touch with friends, but broadcasting to your worldwide fan base where you had dinner last night ultimately doesn't tell anyone much more than how much money you're willing to spend on a steak.

Twitter allows you to actively tweet, or simply consume, without having to reciprocate (and without the negative connotation of being a Facebook stalker, or, my new favorite term--an "Insta-voyeur"). The news feed allows you to quickly see what's going on without accidentally seeing the bloody chicken picture your random friend's friend reposted on behalf of PETA. You have the option of expanding the #lookathisbloodychickenlovePETA tweet, but, luckily, you're not inundated with the visual when browsing. [Note: this feature has changed a bit since date of publishing.]

Fig. 2 Live chick commentary

Also, Twitter's framework reifies the evolution of linguistics in our tech-forward culture, that is, the trend toward briefer communications. We don’t speak in long-winded sonnets or use verbose language anymore. Quite the converse is true these days, with acronyms often replacing whole phrases (ROTFL). Everything, from our attention spans to the time it takes to fly transatlantic, is becoming shorter and faster. By design, Twitter supports the evolution of language towards a concise, categorical, linguistic culture while filtering out those things that are annoying about social media.