Twitterphone: What Gets Lost in Translation?

This post was written by regular contributor Katie Wall.

Remember playing the game of telephone when you were younger? It always amazed me how a simple strand of words moving from one person to the next could get jumbled up so quickly, almost beyond recognition.

“There are four turtles and toys in the barnyard!” Umm…The original sentence was “There are more girls than boys at the party…”

The same thing happens with Twitter. When you only have 140 characters to convey your message a lot can get lost in translation. “You” becomes “u,” grammar is distorted and we #hashtagwhatevertheheckwewant to avoid spaces. Sometimes messages are changed so much that they become mere fractions of what they used to be (I know I’m guilty of this, it’s amazing how much we can all slice and dice a sentence so that it fits within the character limit)!

Beyond forwarding simple changes in syntax, Twitter moves at a pace that allows false news to spread alarmingly fast. Who could forget when Johnny Depp or Zach Braff died? Or the more recent rumor that American Airlines would be flying doctors and nurses to Haiti for free, which created a wave of people sharing what seemed to be time sensitive information rapidly.

Do you think we are cheapening our own messaging by limiting ourselves to 140 characters? Do you think that we’re losing important pieces of information in the shortening of messages? Is it too easy to share false information now? And are the quickly spreading rumors getting in the way of us sharing greater truths?

Photo copyright of doobybrain.com.

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Tim Jahn

I think this definitely happens, especially with the chains of retweets that occur. As people manipulate the message (by shortening words, excluding certain words, etc.) to stay within the 140 character limit, the message itself changes, just like a game of telephone.

Thinking out loud here...I wonder how much this has to do with the tool (Twitter) itself. The idea of the game telephone has occurred in society for generations, as stories were changed a tiny bit by each new person telling it.

In fact I see the same thing happen today. I've listened to people retell a story I experienced with them and heard them change (not purposely) a small detail here or there. Over time, those details build up and a new story evolves from the original, I think.

So, to (finally) answer your question, I do think we're losing important pieces of information with the shortening of messages. But I think this has happened before Twitter and will continue to happen after.

Great post!
Rebecca Denison

So late in the game, but I LOVE this! I never would have thought about that, but you are so completely right. There comes a point when 140 characters are just too few to get complex ideas across.

In some cases, I just ask for an e-mail address or try to send multiple DMs, but we all have examples of when 140 characters were horribly misinterpreted.

I think this just puts that much more on us as the user to be sure that we are clear and concise without losing important meaning. As PR folks, it's our job not to lose the substance with superfluous characters.
GoKTGo

I'm the same way when I want to have a more in-depth conversation - I'll DM them and ask for an e-mail address or see if they're on gchat or somewhere I can speak with greater length!

It really does require us to be a little bit smarter and more concise about what we're saying to make sure substance doesn't get lost! :D

Thanks so much for commenting, Miss Denison! :D Did you end up adopting a puppy?!?!
Jackie Adkins

Telephone is ALWAYS good for some laughs! I think 140 characters is plenty to say what you want, it's just that some people use those 140 characters very poorly. Reckless tweeting is what causes information to be lost in those 140 characters. Usually this involves someone who is too lazy to fact check or even grammar check or maybe they're just trying to be the first to report something.

And of course, it's even harder when you want to RT something and try to shorten it, which a lot of people do and change its meaning in the process.

So, people just need to tweet more responsibly! How do we get them to do that? Beats me!
GoKTGo

"Reckless tweeting is what causes information to be lost in those 140 characters." >> I *love* this!

Do you think there's a lot of room for grammar checking on Twitter? I think that's where translation gets messed up the most - simple things like turning "it's" to "its" to save one extra space changes the entire meaning! And speaking of that - Am I the only one who goes completely insane when I read trending topics that are so grammatically horrible that I want to rip my hair out!? lol!

Thanks for the comment, as always, Mr. Adkins!
-Katie
A_E_M

I remember when people would have to use shorthand in order to take notes. Twitter is the shorthand of Y2K. I do not know how many times have had to re-do tweets or "cut the fat" (aka you are becomes u r). Coming from the years when mIRC was the way to talk and share things twitter is great as it does not allow someone to keep talking and talking (like I am doing now).

AEM
GoKTGo

I constantly find myself re-writing tweets or changing words or deleting exclamation points (*gasp*) to make my messages fit!

It's interesting to think of it as "the shorthand of Y2K" - I had never thought of it that way before!

Thanks for the comment, A!
-Katie
Scott Hale

Thanks for the fun post, Katie. I don't think the 140 character limit is the biggest problem people have with conveying a message effectively through Twitter. Have you tried playing telephone recently (as an "adult")? If the message is confined to a few words, the only way it gets screwed up is if somebody chooses to throw a curveball intentionally. What if you extend the message to 3-4 paragraph story? The odds that it will end where it started are minimal.

Some people are already pretty good at it, but as Twitter continues to mature, people will figure out how to translate just as well as they do in traditional communication (which still might not be that great depending on the person).
GoKTGo

Hey Scott!

While I have played telephone recently, I do believe that I may have been slightly intoxicated (Dear Mom, If you're reading this...uh...SORRY!), so messages got messed up easily ;)

But I think you're absolutely right, the bigger the message, the easier it is to mess it up! I guess we're all still learning here!

Thanks, Scott!
-Katie
seanathompson

Nice post Katie! Though I have no real proof of this, it's my belief (and hope) that Twitter is actually teaching us how to be better concise communicators. And I think that's a good thing. High school and college teach us to write on and on to fill pages, and sometimes lots of text is necessary, but not always. Twitter teaches us to get our message across and get out, and I think that's a good thing.

I agree with the other commenters that links can help expand on something and avoid confusion, but only if the reader follows the link, which most probably don't.
GoKTGo

*GREAT* thoughts, Sean!

I love this >> "High school and college teach us to write on and on to fill pages..." "Twitter is actually teaching us how to be better concise communicators"

I think you're so right!

Haha, I actually replied to @Chevis' comment confessing that I'm often bad about clicking through links - so I think you bring up a great point that we have to be able to get out our message in it's purest form within those 140 characters, just in case people don't take the time to click through!

Thanks so much for posting!! :D
-Katie
Erica M. Martinez

140 characters or 1400 characters, there's always a chance that information won't be correct. It is our job as communicators to ensure we are including accurate and pertinent information. Like Chevis, including a link is a good idea as it points to a additional information and points back to the source.
I think the nature of the RT has increased the speed at which false information spreads because of its ease of use, but remember in 1995 or so when the rumor about Mark Paul Gosselaar dying went around and we didn't even have a RT functionality. It's all about crafting an accurate message, checking sources, reading the articles you RT and using the characters you do have to speak the truth.
GoKTGo

"140 characters or 1400 characters, there's always a chance that information won't be correct." - BAM!

That's awesome, Erica! Well put! It is our job to make sure we're including (and sharing) correct and valuable information!

Oh man, when I heard MPG was dying I was sooo sad! haha! Glad we didn't have Twitter back then! It would have been out of control!!

"It's all about crafting an accurate message, checking sources, reading the articles you RT and using the characters you do have to speak the truth." - I love it. :)

Thanks for your helpful thoughts, Erica!
-Katie
chevis

Great post Katie! I actually played telephone about a year ago while on a camping trip and I had forgotten how funny things end up being at the end of the circle.

As for Twitter, I almost always try and include the article I am tweeting information from. When it comes to breaking news, I typically wait until it is factual before retweeting it. It really bothers me when somebody re-tweets an article they think sounded good in the tweet but they didn't take the time to read it first and it was actually a terrible article/post with a good tagline.

All that being said, things are definitely lost in translation sometimes via Twitter and that is why I try to add links!
GoKTGo

Thanks, Chevis! I actually played telephone a few weeks ago when I was in DC! lol!

I'm always afraid that if I wait to share breaking news that everyone will already know it by the time I get around to sharing it :/ But I think you're right and that it's smart to wait!

I always try to include links when I'm sharing an article, etc. too - but at the same time I know I'm bad about clicking through other people's links and am often guilty of just taking a tweet at face value :/

Thanks for commenting, my dear!
-Katie
Tom O'Keefe

"A rumor is halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on"

Or something like that. I'm not sure, I think it got lost in translation over the years :).

Anyway, good post, KT. I don't think 140 characters is to blame here. People have been spreading rumors and false-truths through different forms of media and word of mouth throughout history, but they've also been spreading the good word and inspiration through those same mediums. Sure, the speed at which news/rumors spread is a whole lot faster than it used to be, but it's the same types messages and, if it is a falsehood, the truth can be disseminated just as easily.
GoKTGo

I love it, Tom!

You bring up a great point about rumors in general - I guess it's just easy to pinpoint them when you see them as a trending topic, where as before it may have been a little bit more difficult to validate/prove wrong!

BUT thank you for being the eternal optimist (one of my favorite things about you) and pointing out the fact that "good" and truth are also being disseminated quickly! :D

It's so easy to point to the bad and forget that the good is there and being shared every day!!

Thanks, Tom!
-Katie
Bryan Cromlish

"A rumor is halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on"

Amazing!
Ross Simmonds

Pants on the Ground, Pants on the ground!! Makin' the truth look like a fool with it's pants on the ground..
GoKTGo

Bahahaha.
thepositive1

First off, I loved the game Telephone!
Secondly, I don't think we are necessarily cheating our messaging by the limited 140 characters. The beauty of adding a link allows for further information.
I do fear the credibility of some messages though. It is far to simple to believe what you read on the Internet. Anyone can publish anything they want.
That is why honest relationships via social media are important to create trust around you posts.
GoKTGo

Haha! Telephone really is one of those great/unifying childhood games! :)

And I think you bring up a great point (and, IMHO, one of the best features of Twitter) about linking - It makes it easy to share tidbits but carry on the conversation elsewhere!

"Anyone can publish anything they want" - that scares me too!! But you're right, the *honest* relationships and credible sources you engage with are where you should turn to for news :)

Thanks for commenting, Bethany!!!
-Katie
Ross Simmonds

Did anyone our age NOT love telephone?! I was always the kid who purposely changed it to something ridiculous. Didn't ya hate that kid?

To answer the first question, I don't think its cheapening the way we communicate. If anything its making our relationships more valuable then ever before. Sure there is only so much you can say with 140 characters but thats why its important to create meaningful relationships.

When I saw that, "Chris Henry RIP" was trending, I didn't take the worlds word for it. Instead, I sent out a tweet and asked whether or not it was true... In the matter of seconds people who I trust sent me messages, letting me know what happened. If you can build trust and solid relationships online your voice won't get lost in translation.
GoKTGo

YOU WERE THAT KID?!?!?! Boo. haha! Jk!

"its making our relationships more valuable then ever before" - I love that! You're so right! It's so important to find/build a trusted community!

I also love the idea of crowd sourcing when you read a trending topic that may or may not be credible! It's great to know that there are people out there in your network that can offer you credible real-time feedback!

Thank you so much for commenting (even if you were the telephone ruiner!!) ;)
-Katie
Bryan Cromlish

Interesting post Katie. I would definitely agree that a lot gets lost. I've noticed this when messages become RT @Person2 RT@Person1 -- Message.

And twitters new retweet system isn't the best because most people do not really check who retweeted them this way [assumption].

I'd like to point out that I think a lot of people distort the messages on purpose. They want to see if Johnny Depp dying becomes a trending topic.In this case 140 characters is not the problem, it is people who use Twitter as entertainment more than an instant news platform. Which is fine in my mind.
GoKTGo

I think you're right about the RT function - I *never* check to see if people do that, but I RT people all the time that way!

I think your idea of people distorting messages on purpose is interesting! I think there is a big difference between the people who use Twitter for entertainment value vs. news - Unfortunately it's hard to weed out those people sometimes (but, honestly, I'm guilty of using it for both)...

Do you think that the new regional trending topics feature on Twitter will change that at all?

Thanks for commenting! :D
-Katie
Bryan Cromlish

Nice Response,

I actually love the new Regional Trending feature (being from Canada).

What twitter needs is a better way of tracking conversation. Cotweet and other 3rd party apps have the tool so I can look back at I have said with you for example.

Put some sort of flow chart to the source would be cool. Does that make any sense?
GoKTGo

Oh! Where in Canada? Wayne Gretzky is from Canada...not that I know him or anything...Just the only Canadian I could think of :)

I think you're right about the tracking system - it would make it so much easier! Not every conversation has a hashtag that can be followed, so it'd be nice to be able to track beyond that!

I think some sort of charting would be awesome! Know any programmers? ;)

Oh! and Celine Dion! :)
Paul Stamatiou

Back in the day Quotably did this kind of conversation tracking tool (and rather well). You would type in a username and it would show you threaded conversations that person was involved in. Nowhere near as crappy as Twitter Search attempts to do this with view conversation. Unfortunately they had to shutdown for technical reasons :-/ http://quotably.com/
Paul Stamatiou

Similarly I do not think the real problem here is the 140-character limit but rather how people use it to spread false information in some cases. Now that doesn't completely invalidate your point as there are certainly cases where original tweets definitely do get lost in translation - however I think on the small-scale that can be assuaged by people clicking "in reply to" on Twitter or Tweetie, TweetDeck, et cetera to find out the greater context of the tweets. Also I think Twitter's newish RT functionality fixes a lot of this lost in translation issue by only making one copy of the RT and having it credited to the original author so you can always go back to their page to see that context as well.

The 140 character limit is, if anything, part of what makes twitter so great. It's an affordance not a restriction in my eyes. If it was any bit longer it would just be too hard to convey messages quickly and lots of people wouldn't read all the tweets. As for hashtags, they came out of a lack of grouping and organizational structure but as you clearly noted KT people are just using them for whatever these days!

Speaking of character limits, have you seen Flutter? haha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
GoKTGo

Do you think that Twitter tends to lack organizational structure in general? In my opinion it's one of the few SM platforms that really just doesn't seem to have a "rule book" yet

I think you're right that the "in reply to" option helps a lot - it's nice when you can see how a conversation unfolds

#andyouknowthatimbadaboutwantingtohashtageverythingisay, but I do think it's a great function for organization/tracking when people use it properly

Thanks for the comment, Amigo!
-Katie
Paul Stamatiou

It most definitely lacks organizational structure. There are no concepts of groups that are commonly found on similar SM sites like FriendFeed. That works to Twitter's advantage as well, keeping them all pristine and simple like they want to be. Agreed on the rule book aspect - Twitter is fairly hands off about how people use Twitter.. which is what makes it so great; versatility and ubiquity. #slash #comment #LAF #2KTen #randomhashtags

p