Sunday, May 10, 2009
In under 140 characters…
I recently joined Twitter as a way to promote my book, and also as something of a joke. For those who don’t know, Twitter is a facility whereby members broadcast short messages to the world via the Internet. The messages can be sent and received on a computer or phone connected to the Internet, through a browser or dedicated application. The joke part comes from the fact that what you say in a message is restricted to 140 characters or under. The original idea was for you to “follow” the threads of people (tweeters) posting messages (tweets), and for them to “follow” you as you discuss your minute-to-minute minutiae. Hence, “Eating breakfast w/ cereal and coffee” or “went for walk with dog & saw three cats” is the traditional image of Twitter, as the individuals using the service inform the rest of the world of the trivia of their lives.
Actually, there’s quite a bit more to it than that. I’m discovering a fascinating world out there, which is doing very sophisticated things with the language that can be expressed in 140 characters. Of course, some abbreviations creep their way in, but the tweeters with whom I am in contact seem not to use them unless absolutely necessary. Among the crowd I seem to have found myself, at any rate, d00dspeek seems to be out of favor, and most people try to write complete words in properly phrased sentences, but sometimes have to shorten words in order to stay under the limit. For example, a news headline quoted just now read as follows “$13 BILLION a yr wld satisfy worlds sanitation & food needs. Aprox. as much as as the US & EU spend yearly on perfume”. But long or “difficult” words do find their way into Twitter - a recent haul through the last 30 minutes of the messages I received brings up “nemesis”, “obnoxious”, and “demented” (among others) all of which have shorter or simpler alternatives in their contexts. Obscenity is there, too, of course, and is often used constructively and humorously to great effect (it’s sometimes overused, true, but usually by people to whose tweets I don’t subscribe) and forms part of the texture of many of the threads here. The magic URL shorteners (tinyurl and the like) are, of course, a must - many news sites will use up over half your allowance per message if the link is quoted in full.
One good thing about the 140 character limit is that it cuts down on excess quoting of previous messages (unlike so many mailing lists or discussion forums, for example). Of course, a simple “Agreed” or “No way” needs context, so a précis of the original message is necessary, separated from the new material by double || or // marks.
So what has been the effect on my style outside Twitter? I think that I am now tending to think a little more before writing. After all, once a tweet has gone out there, it’s there for the world to see, and though it can be deleted by you, there’s no way of knowing how many people saw it before you shoved it back into decent obscurity. Also, I am asking how can I get my point across clearly. What idea or ideas do I want to put over? What words are necessary? More importantly, what words aren’t necessary. Or (in under 140 characters): “Writing on Twitter makes you think first, and concentrate only on the relevant parts of the thoughts you want to share.”.
So this, and the fact that Twitter is always on my desktop, bringing a continuous stream of advice, wit, news and random thoughts from round the world, some of which requires my responses - in under 140 characters - is affecting my day-to-day writing. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t distract me from my main writing tasks. Yes, it takes time to produce these miniature pearls of wisdom, but not nearly as much as a blog post or answer on a discussion board or mailing list, and I find these brief interruptions actually recharge my batteries for the main task at hand.
I’d be interested to know if there are other writers out there who have subscribed to Twitter, and if so, what effect, if any, it has had on their approach to writing.
Oh, if you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m hughashton.