It is true - you can’t write Great Expectations in 140 characters. You can’t even write “London Calling”. But you can write a cry for help, a howl of outrage, a cheap joke or a wise remark.
One of my favourite tweeters is the philosopher Alain de Botton. “People don’t want to be with people who couldn’t survive without them.” “Those who go on to be proper writers are those who can forgive themselves the horrors of the first draft.” “We’re best placed to choose wisely in love when we have no particularly strong need for anyone.”
Alain de Botton tweets about the nature of existence; how can anyone not be interested in that? You have to make it all count - like a haiku, like a poem, like words of love. I feel that keeping to that 140-character maximum is like doing sit-ups for my language skills. It would not be the same if you were allowed to ramble on and on. There is an element of performance to Twitter, it resembles being on stage, or public speaking, or live television. If you are going to talk in sound bites, then they better be tasty.
Despite the brevity, Twitter is in love with language. The notion that it is pidgin English is plain wrong. Being limited to 140 characters concentrates the mind. Twitter doesn’t degrade the importance and meaning and the weight of language. Twitter elevates every word.
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