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Twitter: From microblogging to the president's mouthpiece
For the social media obsessed, Twitter's rise into the very fabric of our daily political lives might seem natural. But when you realize the site itself has only been around since 2006, Twitter's near-daily headlines in major news organizations is something to ponder. Especially when you consider it wasn't fully embraced as a newsgathering tool until 2010, when a US Airways aircraft made a miraculous landing on the Hudson River. Oh, such innocent times. Twitter's most recent big picture shift to allowing 280 characters is a true milestone, but its not the only one. Our timeline to 280 video will take you through all the highs and lows on the micro-blogging platform. And maybe, please Jesus, one day the company will finally add an edit button. (Hey, we can hope.)
Twitter proved its priorities are screwed up with just 280 characters
Yesterday, Twitter announced that it would experiment with doubling the character limit in tweets, making the jump from 140 to 280 characters. And, as expected, it didn't take long for people on the internet to start critiquing the move, which is available only to a "small group" for now. Most of the feedback so far seems to be negative, and some are saying it's further evidence of Twitter's reluctance to confront larger issues. Instead of focusing on creating better tools for reporting harassment or acting faster to remove abusive content, the company is rolling out a feature that the majority of its users simply didn't ask for.
