Project phases timeline
Building a community
Gathering evidence
Creating ideas
Reaching conclusions
Launch
3 March 2020
Think in 33 characters
It seems that technology allowed ordinary people to express their ideas more effectively and to get more information, thanks to the new media.
This is true. But the question is: which ideas? and which information?
Recently I found out that the most common length of a tweet (when Twitter only allowed 140 characters) was 34 characters, and now (that the limit is 280) the most common length is 33… Moreover, historically, only 9% of tweets hit Twitter’s 140-character limit, now it’s 1%…This suggests that people (not just common people, but even politicians and opinion makers) not only write short sentences, but possibly think brief concepts.
It’s difficult to elaborate anyth… (33-character limit reached!)
But not just the length, also the time for thinking is limited, since politicians have to (or guess to have to) answer in real time to any solicitation by both adversaries and voters… The impact on democracy is huge.
Project phases timeline
Building a community
Gathering evidence
Creating ideas
Reaching conclusions
Launch
3 March 2020
Comments
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Kifletsion Mamo Desta
This is an interesting idea. Little time for politicians to reflect deep and tweet long. Political views are subject to contentions. The more politicians and opinion leaders write the more they are subjected to criticisms which may put their office at risk. Democracy also gets less vibrant. What is worse than using technology lesser is the fact that politicians’ ideas are usually an immediate response to a rival or a political rival to win public opinion one way or the other. Technology helps the free-flow of ideas. But politicians and other public figures are forced to use it cautiously and with a specific target. This would not promote the free flow of mature debates without which democracy cannot grow better.