Twitter Big in Japan, Study Says Similar to Haiku

Monday, 08 August 2011 | by Pat's Picks

Character limit. Reminiscent of Haiku. Twitter, meet Japan. The Japanese love Twitter. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, they’ve been sending out so many tweets that they’ve caused some of the biggest traffic hikes in the site’s history. A new study says Twitter has become a popular mode of communication with the Japanese because its 140-character limit evokes a traditional art form, the haiku: “Twitter could be something like haiku was 400 or 500 years ago when it first emerged.” Linguists say Twitter’s character limit recalls the classic 5-7-5 restraints found in haiku. They also found an re-tweeting analogy, saying it calls to mind the haiku contests of yore, when people would add seven syllables to the end of a poem and then pass it on for someone else to do the same.  Experts claim the site is also helping people talk more openly about their feelings and emotions, something that’s been traditionally absent from Japanese society.