Voodoochilli Design

Jumping on the proverbial band wagon, I recently started to use Twitter. I quite like this format which is limited to just 160 charters, microblogging I believe it’s called. It suits our busy lifestyles just to write a few sentences when something comes to mind. I find it interesting that it uses 140 characters instead of another number, say 200. Presumably this is because of the fact that mobile phones are limited to 160 letters, and this leaves enough space for the entire message to be sent by text. I find this curious because with all of the advances in technology since SMS messaging was standardised in 1985, why hasn’t this number increased? I think we can safely put this down to profit for the network providers. Twitter itself is highly compatible with mobile devices. Using SMS technology you can update your Twitter page from anywhere. I’m working on a website at the moment that will also need to be updated vis mobile devices. It occurred to me that not only was 160 characters not enough, but that nearly all phones these days are web and email compatible anyway. I believe SMS technology will one day become redundant, I believe this regardless of the statistical fact that people are sending more and more texts each day. The simple fact is that a SMS message, whilst convenient is and expensive and limited way to communicate. An analogy is the BBC licence I have to pay for here in the UK. It seems to me that with more and more people using the internet to be informed and entertained, as well as the constant increases in broadband speeds it’s only a matter of time before we can get all of our television programs online. It’s a cheaper, more modern and more diverse way of communicating. This is not to say that the BBC will cease trying to charge people for the privilege.

One thing that I don’t yet understand on Twitter is why people follow me that I have never met and have no interest in. I think that people must just go though people’s lists and press the follow button without giving it a seconds thought. I guess it’s one way of promoting their own accounts. If someone follows me I do check them out and if I find what they have to offer an interest I will add them, I will not do it however just to promote my own Twitter account.