Once you sign up for a twitter account, you can find and connect with your friends, family, co-workers and classmates. You can also "follow" popular celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, Barack Obama and Jimmy Fallon.

After you connect with and follow people on Twitter, you can broadcast what you're thinking about, what you're doing, who you're with, or say anything at all to your own group of "followers". Importantly, you can read what the people you are following are saying and reply to them.

Twitter first became popular at a the South by Southwest (SXSW) conferencehttp://gawker.com/tech/next-big-thing/twitter-blows-up-at-sxsw-conference-243634.php and quickly gained ground with high school and college students. People began to use the system on their mobile phones to broadcast what party they were at, who they were with, and what they were doing. People quickly follow each other to stay up-to-date on the latest personal news and events. With the help of mass-media exposure, Twitter has ballooned into one of the most popular and influential sources of information on the Internet.