Twitter’s decision to increase the character limit from 140 to 280 last year has not only provided more room for tweets but also appears to have made us politer and using fewer abbreviations.
The social network has seen the use of “please” more than double in the 12 months since August 2017, while “thank you” has increased by 22%.
r u abbreving less rn?
Since the switch to 280 characters a year ago, we've seen an increase in people writing out full words and phrases. pic.twitter.com/pjnfyVmilY
— Twitter Data (@TwitterData) October 30, 2018
Haters of abbreviations like “gr8”, “b4” and “sry” will be pleased to hear that the extra character space seems to have led to a reduction in their appearance, while the use of the words in full is on the up.
Despite the increase, only 12% of tweets are longer than 140 characters, suggesting many people are still mindful of keeping messages fairly brief, while only 1% hit the 280-character limit.
Twitter’s statistics indicate that people are more curious on the social network than before, with a 30% increase in tweets using a question mark.
The company recently reported a mixed set of quarterly results, showing daily active users have risen by 9% since last year, while monthly user numbers have fallen.
However, revenue for the social network went up by 29% year on year, reaching 758 million US dollars (£588 million).
“We’re achieving meaningful progress in our efforts to make Twitter a healthier and valuable everyday service,” said chief executive Jack Dorsey.
“We’re doing a better job detecting and removing spammy and suspicious accounts at sign-up.”
