Brevity is the soul of wit

So said Shakespeare, and I agree wholeheartedly. Brevity is the soul of most communication. The same message repeated loses its charisma. Perhaps it is the 'familiarity breeds contempt' postulate. A message, once spoken, becomes familiar to the listener, and when repeated it is annoying. I once read an article that claimed that the human mind relaxes through variety more than it does through sleep, because the mind does not sleep when we do. Old information = no variety. Is that why we are attracted to sources of new information: news, magazines, blogs, novels, the latest ____?

An exception the above rule is when there is no new information to begin with. Two entities share a common belief, and expression of the belief in between them is reassuring. Maybe the brevity principle applies more to disagreeable messages and to information that we have no emotional connection with, than to pleasant exchanges. After all, it is information the mind eats: A lot of sweetness is fine, but the bitter and tasteless stuff... briefer the better.