I specialize in strategic communications, using words to try to educate, elucidate, sway opinion and win support. I fear, however, that words are losing their power these days, and it makes me sad -- not only for my profession, but for my life and, well, for all humanity.Twitter is at the forefront of the decline of America's patience for prose. The social-media network recently celebrated its sixth birthday with media fanfare and reproductions of the first tweet in history.
Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey wrote in 2006 "just setting up my twttr," which was reverentially "retweeted" as if it were akin to the first telephone call in history by Alexander Graham Bell: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." (Which, come to think of it, was just as boring as the world's first tweet.)
By way of definition for the uninitiated, Twitter transmits brief messages ("tweets") around the world (the "Twitterverse") to other Twitter users ("tweeps" or "tweeple"). Twitter's obsession with brevity is unforgiving. Tweets may only be 140 characters (words and spaces), which forces tweeple to use amusing abbreviations, such as "Gr8!C u L8r."
In some workplaces, there seems to be an intolerance for eloquence that overrides all other considerations. I once worked for a client who demanded that everything be written in bullet points -- no verbs, adjectives or other parts of speech.
"Nobody will read it otherwise!" he insisted. I was delighted to send him a bullet-point letter of resignation several weeks later.
The professional pressure for brevity at the expense of thoughtfulness is expressed perfectly in a PowerPoint satire of the Gettysburg Address, which renders one of the most important speeches in history into six slides. The first full slide reduces all of the nuance, history and eloquence of the speech's opening into: "• Met on battlefield (great) • dedicate portion of field • unfinished work (great tasks)."
While the speech is too long to tweet, it is still an excellent example of "less is more." President Abraham Lincoln actually received second billing when the military cemetery at Gettysburg was dedicated in 1863. He had to wait while Edward Everett, a man history has largely forgotten, spoke for two full hours. Upon finally taking the podium, Lincoln said a mere 272 words -- among the most inspiring ever uttered.
Other historical figures could be recast in the Twitterverse. Winston Churchill was a prolific author who received the Nobel Prize for Literature (in addition to saving the world from Hitler in his spare time). His 43 published books are, of course, beyond tweeting. But Churchill's caustic commentary was astonishing in its brevity and impact.
