What's the deal with Twitter?

If you see me typing away on my BlackBerry, odds are that I'm not texting. I'm probably tweeting.

Yes, tweeting. Tweeting is the verb used when referring to the social media site Twitter.com. No, its not "twittering," its "tweeting." If you're not familiar with the site, I'm sure the first thing you thought was, "What's so great about Twitter? Its just a bunch of [Facebook] status updates."

Wrong.

The original purpose of Twitter was like status updates - a quick way for all of a circle of friends to stay connected. Study session on the campus library, anyone? Happy hour at Blu Sushi?

However, Twitter has fluidly evolved with how its users communicate and if you know how and when to use it, can be essential in staying connected with in the ways you choose: locally, nationally, even globally.

How I use Twitter:

I have a few core group of friends I know personally, (@danakay, @sarahreaves, @gunk, @burdladii [my mom!], @beachmuscles, @Peter_Murphy, @ccchristopher, @matthewashton,@celisseb, @kpbabyy, @devils_girl23, @lolngiggle, @naticus, @rodrigosbrown, @brewcbaby, @CVClyde, @MarcellaSchmidt, @Keeeer, just to name a few) that I tweet back and forth with daily.

Example:

@caitykauffman: My milk expires today - can I still drink it?

replies:

@brewcbaby: yes
@CVClyde: its probably fine, but dairy is bad for your throat.
@burdladii: yes, milk is good 7 days after the date
@Rodrigosbrown: yesss hurry! unless it smells funny.
@foochuck: smell it first! but you should have a few more days to drink it.
@ccchristopher: god no. I have to finish mine like 5 days before.
@Lindros97: dont drink milk if your sick..makes phlem into sperm-like substance..or....go ahead and drink it!!

You see, had I not consulted my dairy-farmer followers, I very well could have poured the semi-expired milk into my Raisin Bran Crunch (I didn't) and consequently irritated my tonsilitis-infected throat (which, today, feels significantly better. Thank you, followers.)

Aside from avoiding phlegm build-up, Twitter is the quickest way I hear about the latest headlines. I follow @nytimes, @cnnbrk (CNN), @ndn (Naples Daily News), @TIME and @redsoxcast, to name a few.

I follow @redsoxcast, and they gave me play-by-play updates to all the redsox games and final scores.

@cnnbrk was the first way I heard about Michael Jackon's death.

As an intern for Naples Daily News, their Twitter account,@ndn, posts articles (including mine) and when I re-tweet them, they show up in my friends' timelines. More re-tweets = more views on my article.

So, really, Twitter isn't a status update (they recently changed their update prompt from "What are you doing?" to, "What's happening?") but a way to produce and consume the news thats happening around you.

And hey, if you had a fabulous turkey and swiss sandwich on marble rye at the corner deli - tweet that, too.