Desperately Trying to Quit Twitter

It's the social network du jour. But what do we really get out of it, aside from interrupted?

Tom Grill / Getty

Twittering is like a cross between blogging and IMing.

Twitter is an online service you can use to send out short (140 characters or less) notes to the world via the Web, IM and text-messaging. People use it to issue updates about what they're doing, eating, seeing, feeling, etc., to their family, friends and whoever else might be following them. ("Following" is Twitterspeak for signing up to receive somebody's "tweets," which is what the individual updates are, adorably, called. Tweets are a bit like the status updates on Facebook , but without the Facebook.) ( See the best social networking applications. )

When Twitter launched...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!