Tweet Sized Wisdom and Soundbites

A few days back, Vatican cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi called Jesus Christ the first user of Twitter. Huh? Ravasi says Christ:

“used tweets before everyone else, with elementary phrases made up of fewer than 45 characters like ‘Love one another’”.

Embracing the Internet seems to be the signature of Pope Francis.

This reminded me of Bruce Handy’s analysis as to how much wisdom can be squeezed into the 140 character limit that Twitter enforces. His answer? It was enough for not only Jesus but also Descartes, Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and Martin Luther King! A few samples from Handy’s list:

I think, therefore I am. (24)

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. (35)

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. (47)

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. (83)

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. (113)

But are these just soundbites? Surely you lose something when you change your focus from the message to something short or even better, memorable? Susan Sontag goes a step further in her dislike for, well, she calls them aphorisms. Here’s why:

“Aphorism is aristocratic thinking: this is all the aristocrat is willing to tell you; he thinks you should get it fast, without spelling out all the details. Aphoristic thinking constructs thinking as an obstacle race: the reader is expected to get it fast, and move on.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist and “science communicator” (as Wikipedia calls him) disagrees. Here’s what he thinks is the intent of a soundbite:

“Don’t think that soundbites aren’t useful if they don’t contain a curriculum. A soundbite is useful because it triggers interest in someone, who then goes and puts in the effort to learn more… Take the moment to stimulate interest, and upon doing that you have set a learning path into motion that becomes self-driven because that soundbite was so tasty — why do you think we call them bites?”

In other words, the onus is on the listener: if you are lazy/too busy/not interested enough and don’t pursue that topic, that’s on you. Don’t blame the message!

deGrasse Tyson considers tweeting as something similar to sculpting!

“When I compose a tweet, I feel like [Rodin] who said, “When I make a sculpture, I just cut away everything that isn’t the man or the woman, and then that’s what’s left.”

Don’t most of us prefer the guy who is to the point over the guy who rambles?