140 or less
I can't believe that it's come down to this… I used to be so diligent about updating my blog. And now, along comes Twitter. Not that I'm a brand new gal to it or anything. Well, partially newbie, I've been on it since October I think. ANYWHO.
It's amazing to me that first with text messaging, you had to make messages in 160 characters or less, which was usually simple because it was a short reply, and if you couldn't say it in that, you just pick up the phone. But, with Twitter… 140 characters to properly emphasize exactly what is going on challenges your brain and your vocabulary, which is nice. Sometimes. Until you get the most amazing event that comes along that you want to tell, and it wouldn't even fit in 15 updates.
See, for southerners, like myself, (which I've been accused of lately of losing some of it by fellow Tweeple, but I won't let it bother me) we're storytellers. We like to draw the story out and make it interesting it… don't read lying or exaggerating (though my grandfather probably does). But, it's detailed. And the humor usually lies in the great detail. The expression gets lost in Twitter… as does in blogging. It's the lost art of personal expression that I often miss in the world of "social media" that is often less social than we deem it to be.
I'm taking on new means to try to expand the social media outlets that I do have, but I am also trying to make my real social connections more intentional. However, at the same time, I never want to lose sight of the importance of being a great storyteller or the influence of a great lengthy, strong structured sentence that doesn't have lingo of the interwebs.
The crazy extravagant anecdotes are those that people remember years from now… not the updates or statuses that were 140 characters or less.
