Twitter expands character limit

OK - Twitter has doubled the number of characters that can be included in a tweet. You now have 280 characters. Two hundred and eighty characters is still not much, but it offers the opportunity to offer more complete thoughts and it is well within the limits of what I would consider a microblog (this used to be a thing - it is difficult for me to regard Twitter as any kind of blog).

Some Twitter users evidently feel that they have been betrayed. They threaten to abandon the service, to unfollow those they follow who are wordy, and to use extensions that automatically truncate or ignore tweets that extend beyond 140 characters. This all seems silly to me and I have trouble understanding why these folks are so put out. Given all of the inane things that appear on Twitter, the ads, the cat images, and the images of text offered in a way to get around the 140 character limit, these folks are enraged by the limited number of tweets that will be a bit longer. Flexibility is evidently not a virtue to these folks and the split second it takes to scroll on down the list must be a significant intrusion into their very busy lives.

Locked in by legacy

An interesting reality of social media is that users end up locked into systems with obvious limitations. Users feel they must accept these limitations because that is where other users are. This is such a strange position to be in for those who see technology as a remedy for outdated systems.

I have written on multiple occasions about the limitations of Twitter as a tool for educator chats. I have even attempted to come up with suggestions for how chat groups might improve the benefits of engaging in chats on Twitter.

One important limitation of Twitter discussions I so no way to modify is the very limited comments users can generate. Imagine a face to face discussion in which individuals were forced to state their positions and offer explanations in 140 characters or less. [The first two sentences of this paragraph contain 261 characters] Why not look for a tool more appropriate to a more meaningful discussion?

Here is a recommendation. Most edchats involve a small number of participants. I would suggest for a given session the group try a different "microblog" and see if they think the interaction is more useful. My recommendation would be Mastodon. The open source Mastodon project makes use of a tool that looks very much like Tweetdeck.

The 500 character limit offers far greater flexibility of expression. Educators - be risk takers when the risk offers advantages over what you are doing now.