The gripping power of a single tweet: 140 characters or less

A lot of knowledge can be packed into the tiny text boxes of Twitter — this sentence alone is less than 140 characters from start to finish.

The popular social media platform’s length restriction has opened a creative window for users to broadcast thoughts in a quick sentence or two. But with the presidential inauguration ahead of us, the black-and-white minutia of the “tweetosphere” is growing increasingly gray. Powerful people are writing some powerful tweets.

What was once a platform for users to dump their feelings is quickly becoming a political battlefield. Our nation is being shaped by unfiltered, immediate reaction. When incoming President Donald Trump tweets, the world reads — and then reacts.

Regardless of your political stance, the raw words coming from the mind of the incoming president are amusing. Never before in history has such an influential individual shared his ideas on such a simple stage. When you’re preparing to lead the free world, there’s evidently no time for editing or reviewing. What the world reads is pure, unadulterated thought vomit.

Finger pointing aside, it is the reaction to these tweets that’s alarming. A single tweet, a few taps of the keyboard, should not wield the power to make enormous global change.

When Trump attacked Lockheed Martin on Dec. 12 with a tweet containing only 25 words, the entire company’s shares dropped nearly 2.5 percent. Another tweet just 10 days later sent shockwaves of worry across the nation with the whispers of nuclear war.

While the tweets of Trump and other public figures are a realistic glimpse into their basic thought processes, we should hardly stress to analyze their meanings. Thousands wrongly compete in the race to break down the significance of every word and its repercussions on this country.

What we should instead do is take these posts as Twitter intended them to be: brief insights on current happenings. With the same motives as a heartbroken teenager, an important public figure might pick up his or her phone and publish a fleeting feeling rather than a long-term ideology.

Don’t read and weep — read and wait. Wait to see where a certain mention or thought on Twitter might lead before spiraling into fear. As with every post on social media, take each word with a grain of salt. We live in a world of immediate response, but sometimes it’s important to take a step back and watch things play out before our very own eyes.

Untangle yourself from the grip of powerful tweets and read through the lens of entertainment. What matters most is not a man’s virtual words, but rather his actions and the systems put in place to make them a reality.

I urge you to continue to read all you can read from a host of viable sources. Learn from the very sources you disagree with. Use their thoughts and viewpoints to adopt a broader vision of your own. Develop opinions from in-depth reports, interviews and policies and, above all else, avoid the trap of tactless tweeting.

Max Chesnes is a UF journalism sophomore. His columns appear on Fridays.