I agree completely that there is a lot of awfulness on Twitter. And when it came out it amazed me too that people would limit themselves to such a short form.
And yet it works. And intellectually it makes some sense too: it is very rare that a single thought actually takes more than 280 characters (and maybe a picture) to express.
(Hey, I think FriendFeed was the greatest social network ever built. But there are good reasons it lost to Twitter, and they make a surprising amount of sense)
I don't see what happens on Twitter as "it working". Tastes differ I guess.
> it is very rare that a single thought actually takes more than 280 characters (and maybe a picture) to express.
I guess that depends on the thought. Twitter is full of the kind that take a short grunt to express. But do I really want them? I've found I can do very well without them.
So in this conversation, the only paragraph which is longer than 280 characters is this:
Tried Facebook. Nice platform to see pictures of cute animals. And an occasional meme. And keep up-to-date with latest developments among who went where and ate what, whose kid/dog/cat done what, and other things like that. Never try to discuss something serious there, it's hopeless. Some thematic communities have good content, but the only way to find them is by luck. Oh, and of course it will track you to the end of your days now that you sold your soul to it.
That can be pretty easily split into two thoughts anyway.
I usually try to keep paragraphs small because it's more easily readable and helps me structure my thoughts without getting too longwinded. Joyce could afford multi-page sentences, but I have no hope to keep the reader engaged for so long.
But that doesn't mean it would be better split by some weird interface into separate pieces, each paragraph floating around detached from the next. When I see people trying to fit their good thoughts into that format and then resorting to all kinds of third party tools in order to reassemble the resulting mess back into coherent text - I can't help pitying them. Why would they subject themselves and their thoughts to this kind of torture?
And yet it works. And intellectually it makes some sense too: it is very rare that a single thought actually takes more than 280 characters (and maybe a picture) to express.
(Hey, I think FriendFeed was the greatest social network ever built. But there are good reasons it lost to Twitter, and they make a surprising amount of sense)