Close X
Saturday, November 30, 2024
ADVT 
Tech

Twitter improves users' language skills: Study

Darpan News Desk IANS, 13 Sep, 2014 08:37 AM
  • Twitter improves users' language skills: Study
Expressing your thoughts and views in 140 characters on Twitter may actually be improving your language skills, shows a new study.
 
To prove this, researchers looked at the top 100 most commonly used words on Twitter.
 
Out of the 100 most used words, only two were shortened "RT" (shortened for re-tweet) and "u" (shortened for you).
 
The rest of the words averaged about 4.5 letters and none were contractions.
 
"Twitter may actually be improving its users' writing as it forces them to wring meaning from fewer letters," researchers argued.
 
According to them, a person tweeting has no option but concision and in a backward way, "the character limit actually explains the slightly longer word length we see".
 
Given finite room to work, longer words mean fewer spaces between them, which means less waste.
 
"Although the thoughts expressed on Twitter may be foreshortened but there is no evidence here that they are diminished," the study concluded.
 
The study appeared in OkCupid founder Christian Rudder's new book titled "Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking)".

MORE Tech ARTICLES

Is mobile wallet a distant dream in India?

Is mobile wallet a distant dream in India?
Despite a huge unbanked population and 700 million cell phone connections, the concept of mobile wallet will take some time to become popular in...

Is mobile wallet a distant dream in India?

Soon, save content on Facebook and view later

Soon, save content on Facebook and view later
Facebook is soon to launch a new feature that will let its users flag content like movies, music, TV shows and links for later viewing....

Soon, save content on Facebook and view later

Little printer for your morning newspaper

Little printer for your morning newspaper
Cannot wait for the vendor to deliver the morning newspaper at your doorstep and do not want to switch on the laptop either? A tiny web-connected printer can...

Little printer for your morning newspaper

Bacteria can help find alien life

Bacteria can help find alien life
A discovery on how bacteria interact with salt to build complex three-dimensional shelters to hibernate has led scientists to believe that the micro-organisms...

Bacteria can help find alien life

India records highest social networking growth: Study

India records highest social networking growth: Study
More Indians are logging into Facebook and Twitter accounts, as evident from a record growth of 37 percent in social networking during 2013, according to a study by eMarketer.

India records highest social networking growth: Study

Social media changing rules of engagement: Expert

Social media changing rules of engagement: Expert
Riding on disruptive technology platforms, social media was changing the rules of engagement, making its stakeholders face more challenges than opportunities in the virtual world, an expert said here Friday.

Social media changing rules of engagement: Expert