Twitter Is from Mars, Facebook Is from Venus

May 8, 2009

In a tweet, every character counts.

It’s love in 140 characters, actually.

Time magazine celebrated its “100 Most Influential people” issue Tuesday night by throwing a posh Gala at the Time Warner Center in midtown Manhattan. Oprah, Michelle Obama, and 50 of the other “most influential people” were in attendance, several of them were busy Twittering away on their Blackberries and iPhones.

The evening’s host, Jimmy Fallon, teased the First Lady by saying, “You’ve probably noticed there’s a ton of Secret Service here tonight,” he said, “which means that we’ve got the most powerful woman in the free world here … Oprah Winfrey.”

Fallon, as reported by the New York Daily News, perhaps noticing that Oprah was busily sending out tweets, addressed the founders of Twitter, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, saying, “You are singularly responsible for creating one of the most widely used and influential … Sorry, I reached my 140 character limit, so that’s enough of that.”

If you are one of the few that don’t know it, Twitter is all the rage. Joining Twitter is free, and there are a growing number of addicted “Tweeps” – habitual Twitter users – who send out messages and sweet tweets from one a day to one every few minutes. All done over the Internet, all at no cost, but there is one very important catch: Whatever you tweet, has to be said in 140 characters or less. Remember any keystroke, a period, a coma, even a click of the space bar counts as one of those 140 characters.

That leads to a rather tight, but hopefully cleaver set of words, obviously taking just a few seconds to read. Although, at times, much longer than that to write, particularly if you’re trying to take a hundred-word thought and trim it down to ten or twelve words.

So what do people say about love in 140 characters or less?

We were curious so we went and took a look. Here are some of the tweets we found, written by “tweeps,” (or twits if you prefer) with that little 4-character word, LOVE:

One twit shares his love about rediscovered wealth: “I love it when I find a random $20 BILL in my shorts from last season! wiiicked!! this day ain’t bad afterall.”

One is making the most of his time off: “Drinking cider and tweeting from the tub. I love my life!!

Here’s a guy living out his fantasies online: “LADIES COME MAKE ME LOVE YOU!!!!”

…and another guy who is ready to move on: “Ok, I love Greenville, SC… but 5 weeks and one to go??? Enough is ENOUGH!!!”

A young woman determined to stay upbeat in down times: “Ok so I love my life…but the unemployment flow I got goin is not poppin..”

And another young woman tired of the workday blues: “One more work day until the weekend! I love weekends!”

One woman practicing self-affirmation: “I love my BB Curve! ”

And a spelling challenged Lothario: “So let’s lay around in our under ware. I love herrrr”

And finally, here’s what happens when you want to declare your lifelong devotion, but have run out of characters, like this final tweet: “I love you more than you know I don’t show it like I should, and I’m sorry about that. You are the one that makes me complete. Will you….”

Darn, just a few twipples short of a full tweet!

You can find John Gray on Twitter [http://twitter.com/marsvenus] Feel free to Tweet him, or to RT (“re-tweet”) another tweep’s loving tweet…

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How to Call a Guy

Martians Need to Learn the Art of the Apology

Walking Away from Intimate Violence

Guys Are from Mars: “I’m a Shy Guy…”

Why Women Won’t Say: “I Love You, Man Boy.”

Why Guys Don’t Call

Dating on a Budget

Reel Romance: 4 Date Night Films