78% of Canadian movie-goers would like two tickets to “World War Zed”, please
— Stats Canada (@stats_canada) June 24, 2013
In less than 140 characters, there is a funny little story that is topical and pointing out some of the funny characteristics of Canadians (very polite and that we are big fans of rapper Jay-Zed).
So why are we so hard on kids that they “overshare” on social networks? Much of what they do would be considered a short “story” that they are often telling in 140 characters or less to an audience. Stories have been, and always will be, an important part of our world.
There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories. —Ursula K. LeGuin
The mediums to tell these stories have not changed; they have expanded.
In the recent article, “Twitter is the New Haiku”, the author shares Twitter CEO Dick Costolo’s belief in the artistry that can come from a simple tweet:
“Sometimes I get asked, ‘Don’t you feel that the 140 characters has meant that people don’t think about things deeply anymore?’ The reality is that you don’t look at haiku and say, ‘You know, aren’t you worried that this format is going to prevent people from thinking deeply when you can only use this many words and it has to be set this way?’ I think that people develop language for creatively communicating within whichever constraints you set for people.” Dick Costolo
The author then continues to discuss that with this type of communication, less can often mean more:
“The power of communicating in fewer words is that those words mean more, and in their best forms, those words can inspire thousands more in discussion and speculation.” Emma Green
So are all tweets powerful stories? Absolutely not. A lot of what is shared is absolutely terrible, and many would say that Twitter is really harming our use of language. Yet more people are moving to Twitter to share short stories that often turn into something more:
More recently, Twitter, too, has been coopted as a tool for fiction. Last year, Jennifer Egan wrote a short story in 140-character nuggets, which were posted on Twitter before they were published in The New Yorker as “Black Box.” A few months later, novelist Elliott Holt wrote her own Slate opined. “With its simultaneous narrators and fractured storyline, this is not the kind of tale that could march steadily across a continuous expanse of white space. It’s actually made for the medium.”
The major difference with something like Twitter is that it immediately can give our students an audience. Looking at the traditional time it takes to publish a book, it can almost take a year from the moment it is finished until it is ready for an audience. I am not saying that it is not a worthy endeavour to try writing a book, but we live in a world with multiple opportunities to try different mediums. We do not have to focus on one.
Almost 700 posts into this blog, I first found my voice through Twitter, which expanded into a blog, and may now expand into a book next year. By learning to use the first medium. it helped build my confidence in expanding to the next. The ability to share short little messages and stories, has helped me to move to actually expanding my thoughts. Wouldn’t starting with the 140 character story be a good start for our students?
cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by Wesley Nitsckie
