Opinion Doubling-down

Twitter recently increased the character limit for a tweet from 140 to 280.

“Brevity,” William Shakespeare told us, “is the soul of wit.” The bard, perhaps, was the only consolation for millions across the world who have been butchering language in the attempt to fit their jokes, observations and unsolicited opinions in 140 characters. Earlier this week, however, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the “arbitrary” limit will be doubled (equally arbitrarily it appears) to 280 characters. The ostensible reason behind the expansion is the differences in the depth of meaning languages are able to convey: Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters are able to carry about twice the information of the English alphabet.

Social media naysayers and the lovers of long-winded prose will likely dismiss the change as a merely cosmetic one. Indeed, the pointless profusion of exclamation marks and wink emojis will probably double too. And if you weren’t interested in what your least favourite celebrity had for brunch before, the descriptions of quinoa salad and saltless poha are unlikely to get more riveting with length. But there are more serious consequences as well to lengthier tweets: Donald Trump can now threaten to destroy multiple “enemies of the US”, in the same tweet. Birthday greetings and condolences by world leaders can become less perfunctory (by half at least). And the trolls can spew double the bile. Purists of the English language have hope too: Perhaps “u” can go back to being “you” and the sidelined vowel can return “frm” exile.

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There is, however, something for the twitterati to be wary of, amid the celebrations. Form, after all, imposes itself on content and even the mind of those creating it. The 140-character limit has been more than enough for information, pontification, humour and hate. Those addicted to sharing their every thought must hope that they have twice as much to say. Double the space calls for double the substance.