The average length of our tweets is shrinking, according to researchers from the University of the Philippines who collected and analysed 229 million tweets between September 2009 and December 2012
They found that the median word count had dropped down to five from eight words over three years of data.
The team said the trend could be explained by increasing usage of jargon on its service.
"It may be that we’re all using much more jargon in our tweets and that this represents a fundamental change in the way we communicate," said.
The research comes a few months after a report from social media monitoring company Brandwatch claimed that Twitter users can’t spell and pointed out how social media is changing the English language.
Back in my youth, I’d communicate by writing letters, sending postcards or passing notes in class. I used to have a dictionary by my side as misspellings were frowned upon at home and at school, sometimes resulting in extra homework
Technology has changed all that – people communicate by texts, Facebook or tweets, rely more heavily on auto-correct typing instead of dictionaries and don’t prioritise spelling like before.
Glancing around Twitter, you can find examples of very poor English from "you’re" being used instead of "your" and "it’s" instead of "its" to tweets flooded with BTW, LOL, B4, FYI and UR.
Although I’m not fussed by an occasional typo or abbreviation and enjoy the effects of instant communication, spelling errors still have repercussions in everyday life from landing a new job or a date.
An employer or a special someone nowadays will usually check your Twitter feed or Facebook account once you put yourself out on the market. And good grammar and spelling always reflect well on an individual’s overall knowledge, accuracy and attention to detail
Could misspelling users benefit from a dose of the good old days?
