In attempts to jumpstart user growth, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is considering to scrapping the 140-character tweet limit and increase it to 10,000 characters. Is it just me, or is this just totally bizarre?!

Twitter’s 140-character limit has been around since its launch in 2006 and is arguably the feature that makes the social network what it is. The beauty of Twitter is that the content shared here is short, sweet and to the point, which is a lot more engaging than huge chunks of “mumbo-jumbo” you see on status updates on Facebook. It’s what makes Twitter stand out. It’s what makes tweeting enjoyable.

By increasing the limit to 10,000 characters, tweets will have the potential to be around 2,000 words in length, which is about 8 times longer than this blog, or the same length as the average school essay. Now, if that doesn’t put things into perspective, I don’t know what will.

I know it is common knowledge that many loyal users have been pleading for an extension of the character limit for quite some time now, but I am not quite sure that this is the figure they had in mind. My fear is that rather than attempting to lure new users or increasing existing user engagement, this change will have an adverse effect and people will start using it less. So, this could actually backfire.

It’s understandable that Dorsey would want to make a change and keep things interesting but I don’t think that increasing the character limit is the way. Limiting content to 140-characters works well and is a prominent feature, which not only sums up what Twitter is about but also reflects the future of technology – speed, creativity and brevity.

Not bored yet? Good. But imagine I had carried on for another 8,500 characters.

photo credit: Tweet Scrabble via photopin (license)