Twitter’s biggest draw was its 140 characters. Many of us, when we signed up for this social network, were looking to get away from other alternatives, such as Facebook, to read short and direct messages, without paraphrasing. However, this essence has changed. And, today, it is possible to write a single tweet for which at the beginning we would have needed 71.5 messages on the social network.
The 140 characters have long since gone down in history. In 2017, those responsible for the social network decided to double the character limit per message to 280, a change that many did not like but which, over time, ended up being accepted. And this has been the limit for all users until Elon Musk has decided to continue putting nails in the coffin of Twitter, once again changing the limits.
From 280 to 4,000, and now 10,000 characters
On February 8, 2023, Twitter implemented one of the most controversial changes within the social network in a clear focus on its monetization. And it is that users who paid Blue could start publishing messages of up to 4000 characters, 14 times longer than before. With this, Musk intends to encourage users to pay for the Blue subscription. But that is not here. And it is that, barely two months later, the CEO has decided increase again the character limit, raising it, this time, up to 10,000 characters per message.
TwitterWrite
@TwitterWrite
We’re making improvements to the writing and reading experience on Twitter! Starting today, Twitter now supports Tweets up to 10,000 characters in length, with bold and italic text formatting.
Sign up for Twitter Blue to access these new features, and apply to enable… https://t.co/eifDCsJgZm
April 14, 2023 • 02:41
This has been announced from their own official account. All users of Twitter Blue you can start writing right now messages up to 10,000 characters, which represents an increase of 35 times the previous limit, and completely breaks with the essence of the social network. And this is not the only news that subscribers will receive, but they will also be able to use bold and italics in messages, because plain text is out of style.
Elon Musk is turning Twitter upside down
Did Twitter really need such a radical change? We cannot deny that it had bad things: the bots, strange algorithms, a strange and complicated business model… but everything else was what made Twitter a different social network from the others. But, little by little, this essential is running out.
Since Elon Musk took control of Twitter, this social network is losing all its essence. And not only because of the long messages, but also because everything is being focused on the “Blue” subscription model, the algorithm is impartial and shows nonsense (and all the bullshit that Musk publishes, because he has designed it that way), he has eliminated security features for those who don’t pay, and the problems that have plagued users for years are not going away: bots and trolls. And, as if that were not enough, now it is going to allow real messages of up to 10,000 characters. How long will it take for threads of 10 messages of 10,000 characters to appear? To give you an idea, this post has 3000 characters.
Twitter is keeping all the bad, and eliminating all the good that it had. Thanks for killing Twitter, Musk. It is the best way to disconnect from social networks.
