Twitter

Are you on Twitter yet?  I joined a while ago and at first just listened to what others were saying,  my usual observe-first-before-jumping-in strategy.  Like Facebook, there’s a lot of rubbish on Twitter (do I really need to know what my friends are cooking for dinner?) but the immediateness of it is addictive.  For example,  I watched closely on the evening of August 19 to see if Ramadan would be announced in the Middle East, so I could be one of the first to wish my Muslim friends there “Ramadan Kareem”.   

There’s lots of useful information on Twitter.  My favourite magazines, newspapers and tv shows all tweet their updates.  It’s a quick way to check new posts on the blogs I follow and I’ve also “met” several interesting people through it.  Shopaholics can check out the latest sales and special offers and for business is, it’s a great way to develop personal relationships with customers and drive traffic to your website.

Twitter is teaching me to be concise.  With tweets restricted to just 140 characters  it can be a challenge to get your message across without resorting to adolescent text message abbreviations.  So imagine my delight when I came across this 1996 article in the New York Times on the subject of famous telegrams.  As they were also restricted in length they are perfect examples of how write well with less.  A few examples speak for themselves:- 

It is believed that the telegraph’s founding father, Samuel F. B. Morse, sent his first formal telegram from the Capitol in Washington to Baltimore in 1844.  WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.

A reporter asked the actor Cary Grant about his age.  HOW OLD CARY GRANT?  The actor supposedly replied:  OLD CARY GRANT FINE. HOW YOU?

And the now famous THE REPORTS OF MY DEATH ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED.  The cable which Mark Twain sent from London in 1897 when he heard that his obituary had been published.

It remains to be seen if Twitter will produce similar literary masterpieces!