[LINK] short messages [was: Mindless negativity about Twitter (was Re: Forum on high speed bandwidth in Australia - this Thursday)

[Jan Whitaker]

At 09:08 AM 5/05/2009, Ivan Trundle wrote:
>And Twitter, the fastest growing online social network, which is being
>adopted practically en masse by politicians, celebrities ...

Actually, the 'link' to sms message length is a good one. It may be a 
bit of a chicken/egg thing, but I would think as a communication form 
they are related. Those who txt are used to short messages. 
Sound-bites are the norm, too. So twitter would fit their 
communication style. The change is only that the short message has 
gone from a one-to-one or even a one-to-a-few with a broadcast sms, 
to a one-to-millions, or a many-to-many perhaps.

It may also have an age related aspect to it. Those of us who are 
boomers have greater experience and perhaps depth of understanding of 
different areas, so we have more ideas, 'facts', opinions etc and 
also perhaps value nuance more. We possibly unpack things more and 
don't automatically accept things said at a surface level. I'm 
wiggling a bit on that since this is a generalisation that may not 
exist. But from personal experience, I feel that I increase my 
ability to say things about things the longer I explore that thing -- 
i.e. I learn the vocabulary, the concepts, the rules, and the theory 
of it. Before I get to those points, about all I can do is nod or shrug.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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