Sometimes I reply to comments to my posts on Instagram, and when the reply exceeds a few words, the answer vanishes as if by magic, right in front of my myopic eyes. A kind Instagram mate has given me the answer to this enigma: Instagram, abhors lengthy, wordy communications. Emojis and very brief comments are preferred. I have no issue with this, after all, my communication philosophy was dictated to me by Baltasar Gracián: "A menos palabras, menos pleitos." I miss and long for the defunct telegram, which for over one hundred years taught people to concentrate their thinking into a few words. The telegram charged per word, so many words, so many dollars, pesetas, pesos, or rupees. "Arriving tomorrow 9 am central." I will arrive tomorrow at nine am at Grand Central Station. 5 words instead of eleven. "Send funds." Please, send the money (you owe me, you promised, I need). The idea was to omit all unnecessary words from the telegram while still making the message clear. At times the message was so short that it was cryptic and difficult to unravel. Western Union forced people to rethink and reconsider their messages, prune, compress and squeeze them to get rid of the bran and keep the wheat, the quiddity of thinking.
Instagram has gone a step farther and prefers emojis. So, let me bid farewell by saying 👍 and 😏 and 😄
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