Say it in140 characters



Say it in 140 characters. Is that difficult? Yes, it is difficult; but achievable.

Now, pass on what your friend has said along with your thoughts; all the while keeping the combined message within 140 characters. Is that difficult? Yes, it is difficult and tricky!

I see the above happening many times during a day! People record their thoughts in 140 characters. Within moments, somebody has picked up these thoughts, added their thoughts to it and passed it on. Before passing it on, they ensure the newly edited message also do not exceed 140 characters. Now, the length has remained the same. But the 140 characters has mutated and now contains two distinct thoughts. I’m humbled every time I see this happening on twitter. The tweets are tricky and the retweets are trickier.

I spend a major part of my day articulating my thoughts for the maximum impact in the shortest time. The remaining part of the day is spent in making sense out of the what my colleagues are struggling to say. The twitter philosophy of saying it in 140 characters is a powerful tool to help us all out. In my personal experience, I have typed messages exceeding 140 characters and toyed with it feverishly to reduce the length without diluting the message. Although there are add-on services that lets you type and publish longer sentences, it is mentally stimulating exercise where you reduce the number of character to less than 140 characters.

If you are not too shy to express yourself in a social media, join the bandwagon. In case you are shy or have other reservations, take a piece of paper to practice the twitter philosophy. The name of the game is “Say it in 140 characters”.

Picture Courtesy: Google

Tags: Musings,140 Characters,Twitter

Comments

  1. R. RameshJuly 21, 2010 at 6:55 PM

    brevity buddy brevity...:)

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  2. scorpiogeniusJuly 21, 2010 at 11:07 PM

    Twitter is a part of life isn't it? May be that simplicity is what made it click.

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  3. SwatantraJuly 22, 2010 at 5:29 AM

    hmm:)

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  4. BK Chowla,July 22, 2010 at 9:43 AM

    It can not be helped.Twitter is becoming an experience one would like to continue with.Twitter has another advantage--damn the grammar and the spellings.

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  5. Neena SharmaJuly 22, 2010 at 1:06 PM

    I'm yet to embrace Twitter. But theoretically speaking, I too love terse, concise expressions than rambling ones.

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  6. RGBJuly 22, 2010 at 4:32 PM

    With no time in hand, the faster you say it (read 'in the least possible no. of words'), the better! & with txting language like b4, 2morrow....I guess it's 'become' possible :p

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  7. AparnaJuly 22, 2010 at 7:03 PM

    I neglected it so much my twitter account died a painful death.

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  8. radhaJuly 22, 2010 at 9:36 PM

    There are some bores who I wish would follow the 140 rule even when whey are not on twitter. Alas they don't.

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  9. sjmachJuly 22, 2010 at 9:52 PM

    I guess KISS is what everyone likes!! (KEEP IT SHORT AND SWEET)...

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  10. NonaJuly 22, 2010 at 10:36 PM

    @Ramesh - Excellent choice of word.

    @ScorpioGenius - Simple is beautiful?

    @Swatantra - :)

    @BKC - Grammer and spelling be damned! Give birth to a new language!

    @Neena - Then you should try it.

    @RGB - If we really try, we can still express in 140 characters without taking shortcuts like b4 and 2morrow. :)

    @Aparna - Time to activate it again! You are missing a lot of fun. :)

    @Radha - Exactly! And I'm praying these bores adopt the 140 charater rule.

    @Sjmach - Embrace KISS? :)

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