Sunday, February 8, 2026
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

Tired at home? Come to office and relax

Tired at home? Come to office and relax
Know why some people find workplace a blessing in disguise and shudder at the thought of spending weekends at home?

Tired at home? Come to office and relax

Tech skills your ticket to overseas: LinkedIn

Tech skills your ticket to overseas: LinkedIn
According to a study by the professional networking site LinkedIn, skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) make up nearly half of the 10 abilities most commonly found among professionals who moved to other parts of the world to pursue career opportunities.

Tech skills your ticket to overseas: LinkedIn

A device that connects kids to real games

A device that connects kids to real games
Not happy with your kids being hooked to ipads or tablets playing video games? Turn to a new kind of gaming device, developed by an Indian-origin entrepreneur here, that uses the iPad but brings kids back into the real world of play.

A device that connects kids to real games

Forget pizza, drone to take your dog on morning walk!

Forget pizza, drone to take your dog on morning walk!
Move over pizza delivery by drones. Now, a drone can take your dog on a morning walk while you can continue with sweet dreams in bed.

Forget pizza, drone to take your dog on morning walk!

You just can't miss this 'global selfie'

You just can't miss this 'global selfie'
NASA has released a new view of our home planet - created from 36,000 selfies that people shared on social networking sites.

You just can't miss this 'global selfie'

When diamonds are not a girl's best friend!

When diamonds are not a girl's best friend!
Don't buy this piece of diamond for your beloved as it has a tendency to disappear! You read it right.

When diamonds are not a girl's best friend!