Twitter today decided to drop a bombshell by announcing that they are changing one of their well known idiosyncrasies. The 140 character limit has now been expanded to 280 characters as shown by Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey.
This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence! https://t.co/TuHj51MsTu
— jack (@jack) September 26, 2017
This move is for sure a major one since for the last 10 years, Twitter users have grown accustomed to the 140 character limit. That brevity has also affected Twitter users in various ways like subconsciously making our thoughts more efficient and has reduced our reading span drastically.
Twitter says that they are testing this change to a small number of users in the network. However, the special few that were given this power seem like they are unaware of what to do with all this power.
This change has resulted into a weird cacophony of long tweets from these people and they are as random as they get.
This guy explains how the whole tweeting with 280 characters is like
Did I get put into the 280 character group on twitter? I can't see how many characters I have left, but I see this weird circular thing on the right hand corner filling up. Odds are, that I did not…. or maybe I did???? Who knows, time to wait for twitter to tell me. lol #Kappa
— Punished DGTL (@Dgtldead) September 27, 2017
This guy feels like ‘God’ thanks to being among the chosen few
Oh shit I was selected as one of the special ones to tweet in 280 characters. HAHAHA suck it losers, I feel like God right now. Wait, I'm not done, I would also like to say that all these words I'm typing right now are useless and I wasted them just because I CAN. These too, lmao
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) September 27, 2017
Then later on, he thought it sucked
Hey @Jack I'm going to sleep, I love twitter but 280 characters is fucking stupid and this is coming from a special chosen one. Please don't do this. Please. Also thanks again for choosing me for the test case and giving me superpowers. But seriously 280 characters SUCK
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) September 27, 2017
This guy is having an existential crisis
Oh no they actually gave me 280 characters. Now the joke is ruined and I don't know what to do with all of this space. What did I use to say on twitter? HOW DO I STILL HAVE MORE CHARACTERS??? this limit is way too big. Jesus, still not over? Did I used to have thoughts this long?
— Joseph Fink, 👻🎃healthcare is a human right🎃👻 (@PlanetofFinks) September 27, 2017
This guy decided to use the 280 character limit to write the Lorem ipsum filler text you see during development of webpages
https://twitter.com/_eknock/status/912916670582321152
People are really feeling special with the opportunity to tweet such long tweets
You guys I have 280 characters and I am now officially better than all of you
I really don't have anything else to say but I promise to use this power for good and not evil
69696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) September 27, 2017
Of course there is that one guy who will put the 280 characters into good use by writing an Lorem ipsum paragraph
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Suck it losers, I get 280 characters to waste!
— #CEASEFIRE 🇵🇸✡️🇦🇫🧠🏳️⚧️ (@JShahryar) September 27, 2017
Got tired after the first four o’s
I want a girl with a short skirt and a lo
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ong tweet— Fiora (@FioraAeterna) September 27, 2017
So many questions. Future tweets will be like this
Hello @jack 280 characters look fun for the moment but I think it wouldn't be good in the long run. Please reconsider. How is your family. What time is it in USA? Do you think aliens visit USA only? Do you really believe that North Korea has got hazardous nukes? Aur bta bhai kuch
— Rofl Gandhi 2.0 🏹 (@RoflGandhi_) September 27, 2017
Ironical that an inactive guy was given this power
https://twitter.com/_JoshCall/status/912869555323723776
To end this stream of 280 character long tweets, we now head over to this gem of a tweet that shows how Jack’s tweet could have been shorter
139 characters pic.twitter.com/WkfdXL8oLh
— Caitlin Kelly (@caitlin__kelly) September 26, 2017
We also have the typical reactions from people about this big change by Twitter.
Longer woos
old twitter: send nudes bb
new 280 char twitter: dearest Penelope, it's been a harsh winter's time since thou booty has graced thy screen
— Alpha Male (real) (@SortaBad) September 26, 2017
When you want to use the entire 280 character limit
When you're trying to reach the 280 word limit on a tweet but have nothing important to say pic.twitter.com/Vgasu2mIQV
— Hungerpangs™ 🇰🇪 🇪🇷 (@ShikoWAwanjish) September 27, 2017
More long format jokes
140: i want pie for breakfast
280: i want 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899 for breakfast
— Hail Hydra(tion) (@aksorojas) September 27, 2017
Differences between 140 vs 280
140 character twitter vs. 280 character twitter. pic.twitter.com/zQr5UrBZNG
— Francisco M. Alvarez (@frankalvarez) September 27, 2017
