Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
Okay, I admit it. I now tweet. Mostly silly stuff at the required 140 characters or less at a time. I use lots of abbreviations and Twitter lingo, and I avoid politics and controversy. I have a couple of thousand “followers” and I follow a few folks, too. But if, as Polonius said in Hamlet, brevity is the soul of wit, then it should be possible to say something worthwhile within that Twitter-imposed character restriction. However, most tweets are about eating lunch or watching a football game or saying hello or selling something, and, frankly, none of mine are likely to make it into Bartlett’s either.
But just because something is brief doesn’t mean it’s inane. It occurred to me how many truly profound lines have made their way into our consciousness even though they’re well within the length of an average tweet. You can start right here at Ricochet with Peter Robinson’s great line delivered by Ronald Reagan: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Simple. Profound. Dramatic. And just 35 characters long (including spaces).
John F. Kennedy’s, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” is just 78 characters long , leaving plenty of room for your luncheon menu. “I have a dream” is pretty powerful stuff at just 14 characters. Even “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” is barely half a tweet in length.
In fact, as you look at the endless reams of paper streaming from Washington, filled with page after page of government-speak, you might begin to wonder whether there’s an inverse relationship between length and value. Of course, you can’t really expect everything of importance to be said within the confines of 140 characters, but I’ll bet Shakespeare would have been a great tweeter.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
Unfortunately, it seems Twitter is used less as an instrument to convey erudition and more as a way to broadcast the regularity of one's bodily functions. It indeed is a wonderful tool. Sadly however, the majority of those to whom it is available haven't got the literary skills required to offer Shakespearean or Joseph Addisonian-like quotes. Tis disheartening.
I think though that mere quotes can express profound truths because the relation of the terms they assert are obvious, yet have gone unstated, such as "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
May '10
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
I ha_e _alled _his _ri__i_le, __ _hi_h ea_h sli_h_ _aria_io_, i_ use_ul, is _reser_ed, __ _he _er_ o_ _a_ural Sele__io_.
P.S. You owe me for the vowels.
Jul '10
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
"Write a wise saying and your name will live forever."
Anonymous
Jun '10
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
To get my Twitter followers to follow me on Facebook I send out this Tweet which is prefaced with my Facebook URL:
___(my FB URL here)_________ Follow me on Facebook. They actually give more characters to write longer stuff there not like Twitt
Jul '10
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
Pat Sajak:
In fact, as you look at the endless reams of paper streaming from Washington, filled with page after page of government-speak, you might begin to wonder whether there’s an inverse relationship between length and value.
It's called supply and demand.
Increase the supply, you decrease the demand and, therefore, the value of something.
Quick Example;
Communist Dictator's Speech = 5 hours.
Gettysburg Address = 260 Words.
Which one do we remember today?
Another Example;
Many Speeches are given to Graduating Classes at Colleges throughout the world, most of which are forgotten by the next fall.
Yet, the most oft quoted graduation speech given to a College Class?
Winston Churchill when he said only 3 words, "Never Give Up!"
I'll bet that class Remembered their Commencement Speech.
Jul '10
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
We hve nthin 2 fr cept fr itself. LOL! =)
Jun '10
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
And of course there was the reporter who told President "Silent Cal" Coolidge that he had a bet with someone that he could get the president to say more than three words.
Coolidge replied: "You lose."
Jun '10
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
Shakespeare’s tweets of the day:
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
Sometime back during the 80s--this would be when I was a speechwriter in the White House--I saw George Will debating someone about the effect of television on politics. "It reduces everything to sound bites!" Will's opponent said in exasperation. To which George Will calmly replied, "'As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.' Abraham Lincoln. Pretty good sound bite, don't you think?'"
Ever since I've felt that if you can't reduce what you have to say to one or two sentences, you haven't really thought it through.
Tweet on, Pat, tweet on!
Oct '10
Re: Profundity in 140 Characters or Less
"God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was light."
Infinitely adaptable, Pat. (Though somehow "Pat said, 'Is there an L?' And there were Ls" doesn't sound as sublime.)