Rumors has it that Twitter may move beyond the present 140 character limit.This makes a lot of sense to me and is something I have been supporting for a long time. Some of the speculation regarding the motives makes it sound like Twitter would like to encourage greater “stickiness”. Facebook would be a comparison. Folks spend great amounts of time on Facebook and do not have to follow links elsewhere to get the full message intended by a writer. Capturing attention in one place is a business move, but the opportunity provided may offer other productive consequences.
Users have attempted to apply Twitter to many different purposes, but some of these make little sense to me. I just do not see Twitter as a vehicle for meaningful discussion. It may be great for sharing links, for greetings and shout outs, but I do not see it as a useful tool for writers, readers or learners (if one assumes learning results from the generative processes of writing or reflection upon what is read). Expecting longer posts to Twitter chats would likely change the experience, but I think the changes would result in greater productivity.
As I understand the proposed modification, longer Twitter posts will be experienced pretty much like an RSS feed. One would see the first segment and then click to expand to read the rest. This would not eliminate the short Tweets, but offer a way to provide access to more. Writing in this way would take some practice, but it seems similar to the way news articles are constructed.
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