Thank you, Mr. Jack Dorsey. You have given us all freedom from the tyranny of Myspace, Facebook, and all other overused and overemphasized social networking sites that attempt to take over the world with their fancy applications, gaudy homepages, and impersonal interactions. You have given us this magnificent tool of communication known only as Twitter.

The brainchild of Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone, Twitter has taken the world by storm, giving a simplified social networking a platform to bloom, and the results have been astounding.

Simply explained, Twitter is the “status-posting” aspect of Facebook and Myspace, allowing a user to post a status update of whatever they wish, though it usually consists of what they’re doing or thinking at the time. The catch (you knew there was one coming) is that you can only use 140 characters to get your point across.

Though it seems bare-bones and useless, there’s so much more to Twitter than meets the eye.

Within the status posting, you’re given the opportunity to use the “@” character, followed by another Twitter-er’s username to target any number of users (within 140 letters, of course), which they’ll see on their homepage when they log in.

Speaking of homepages, the homepage customization in Twitter has surprisingly become one of it’s most popular attraction points

Within the clutter of one’s subscribed tweets, the sidebar containing an array of Twitter-ific tidbits, and the titlebars, the background image and color scheme of one’s own Twitter page is of the utmost importance to many members of the site despite its minimality and supposed triviality of their tweets; their followers are going to want a show when they visit their page, now aren’t they?.

To clarify, followers are those who have chosen to “follow” your postings, or “tweets”, becoming listed on your homepage as such, and on their page as someone they are “following” (both are visible to anyone visiting either page).

Having a healthy number of followers is all fine and dandy now, but with spam accounts and Tweeters who rarely tweets, it’s more about who you’re following and who’s following you. Thankfully, there’s a lot of noteworthy people on Twitter.

One of Twitter’s main advertising points, even from inception, was the celebrity names that were using Twitter, thereby enticing the rest of us to go ahead and make an account. Celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal, Soulja Boy, Barack Obama, companies such as CNN, and various other musical artists, athletes, politicians, and bigwig companies are all using Twitter, using it heavily, and using it to advance their agendas.

And to connect directly and often with their fans, of course.

It’s not at all uncommon for one to be directly tweeted-@ by a celebrity who happened to pick their tweet out of thousands of others to reply to, giving an almost real, personal interaction between a normal citizen and someone they would likely never get the chance to meet in real life.

I myself am a Twitter user, and take great pleasure in knowing exactly where Missy Elliott is lunching in Orlando, when Keri Hilson’s flight is leaving LAX, and precisely how Lady Gaga’s concert went in Germany, minutes after she leaves the stage. Facebook, Myspace, nor anyone else can begin to compete with that.

Celebrity «star power» has never been questioned before, and I’m certainly not inquiring as it concerns Twitter, which boasts nearly 20 million users, as recently reported by a Nielsen usage report. Revenue for the company has tipped $57 million, and are projected to reach 1.54 billion by the end of 2013, according to TechCrunch.

Another interesting Twitter tactic is the Trending Topics feature in every user’s homepage sidebar.

This section contains the most popular topics being tweeted, usually originating from other sites and beginning with the «#» symbol, which makes the entire word appear as a link to every tweet containing that same topic.

Other trending topics go without the symbol, and concern whatever news is big at the moment, such as when Michael Jackson kicked the bucket (I think he held five of the top 10 Trending Topics that day).

Twitter has become something of a cultural phenomenon, if not a mini-culture in itself. It even has its own language!

Due to the 140-character limit on any and every tweet to be posted by anyone, tweeters have begun taking shortcuts to get their complete thoughts in (shortening words, skipping words, etc.), along with modifications of common English words to associate them with Twitter, such as the word «tweet» being used as a verb to describe the action of tweeting.
«Twam», a term derived from «fam» or «family», is an expression meaning everyone following your tweets.

The «Twitterverse» (Twitter Universe) encompasses all aspects of Twitter, users and all.
A «Tweep» (as in, peep) is a follower whom you consider a friend.
«Twexting» is the act of tweeting via text message on their cellphone, which can be set up using one’s online account.

On that note, I must say I have yet to find the «cons» of Twitter.

It’s simpler than Facebook, but not as pointless as Myspace. It’s not trying to catch up or take pointers from anyone else’s model. It’s unique, and at the same time accessible and useful for anyone. And somehow, while millions of us tweet about every waking moment of our lives («hey twam, just woke up.»), someone is making millions of dollars off our recreation.

I take back my gratitude, Mr. Dorsey. Apparently you should be thanking me, and the rest of the millions who have fueled your invention. Look how rich we’ve made you just because we like tweeting!