The world of Twitter is confusing and it’s confusion it has created an atmosphere of dislike. Many people who don’t fully understand the purpose of Twitter disregard it, thinking that it is just fully of pointless chatter.

First, let me explain briefly how Twitter works. Everyone that tweets is a twit and yes, there is such a thing as tweets per minute or tpm.

Another part of Twitter that can be an annoyance is the hashtag. The hashtag is used to categorize tweets so they can be found in the Twitter Sphere. However, these hashtags don’t work on Facebook. Hashtags can also be used on Instagram to categorize photos.

There is a lot of pointless chatter on Twitter. If you follow the wrong people you can fill up your Twitter feed with tweets about nonsense. Like people who are using the hashtag #YOLO to categorize tweets that have to do with a ‘you only live once’ attitude. You can search for specific hashtags on Twitter if you’re looking for a particular topic.

I don’t follow any of these individuals, but if I did I would never want to go on and look. I’ve chosen to follow a few celebrities I like and breaking news. I don’t have a whole lot of time to read every article, but Twitter is a unique way to gain information quickly.

Twitter has a another purpose besides just getting news. Since it is used worldwide, sharing stories is easier. Sierra Nevada College is a small school and not all of the stories that are written for the Eagle’s Eye are connected to national topics. However, during the recent United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association National Championship I tweeted the stories that I was writing and got some interesting results.

The first story I published was about the women’s ski team taking first place in Giant Slalom. The story was picked up and published in Women’s Action Sports News.

As the competition went on I continued to publish the story and share it on Twitter. Two more stories got picked up and I gained two more mentions on Twitter.

The mention on Twitter is a really awesome way to gain popularity and get people to notice you.

Twitter is useful to share news that is breaking, but maybe not all of the details are in and confirmed. It is also a good way to build connections with companies that are using Twitter to get the word out about them. If you’re new to Twitter, take the time to understand it before writing it off a frivolous.

Twitter isn’t the place where you share absolutely everything, but local breaking news, no matter how small is a good way to get the word out so everything can be covered. Any questions about Twitter can be answered on the support portion that Twitter has. I found it very helpful in explaining the inner workings of Twitter.