Though the 140-character format is a constraint, it need not be seen as a limitation; while participants often shorten and otherwise modify tweets to fit into 140 characters, this characteristic of Twitter can also be seen as an advantage. The brevity of messages allows them to be produced, consumed, and shared without a significant amount of effort, allowing a fastpaced conversational environment to emerge. The varied approaches users take in addressing constraints reveal what they value in specific messages and in Twitter as a conversational environment. Participants’ social and informational goals vary, and accordingly, so do their retweeting practices. Regardless of why users embrace retweeting, through broadcasting messages, they become part of a broader conversation.