# Twitter. Can someone explain to me how this works? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 10, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837 "2013-02-10T01:04:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/1 "2013-02-10T01:04:29Z")
I know it’s a dumb question, but it is a serious one, and I’ve already been to the website. Here is what I understand. Let’s say I pick SFP for my twitter name (let’s assume it’s available, it doesn’t break any rules on length ect.) I tell all my friends. They decide whether or not they want to follow my daily pearls of wisdom. I likewise do the same, finding friends, athletes, or whatever to get messages from… Is this correct so far? So, where do the messages go? It seems from what I read on the twitter pages, I can log into twitter and read them there. But that seems tedious, almost like another email account. So I assume they also come directly to you in some fashion on your mobile device, like a phone. But how do they come? As a text message? Or is there a special twitter app that you need that pops up everytime someone that you are following writes something? If it is a text message, unless I have unlimited text, this could get really expensive. I honestly don’t get the appeal of this at all, and yet, it seems like the entire world is communicating with twitter. @ signs and # signs… I vaguely understand these. Can someone give me a quick overview, or point me to a non-twitter page that will explain it in a way that makes sense? Finally, are there any hard-core twitter users out here, and if so, what do you use it for? I’m genuinely curious. This is the first social media/technology thing out there that I simply don’t see the need for. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/2 "2013-02-10T01:35:22Z")
I use an app on my phone to read Tweets. Yes, it’s like having another email, much like I have to log into Facebook, LinkedIn etc to see what’s happening on those sites as well. I do forget to check it since I follow FB more closely, but when I do I usually use the app on my phone or iPad. ---
**Author:** ![steviep24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@steviep24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steviep24)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/3 "2013-02-10T01:55:32Z")
I’ll explain some twitter basics. Main idea is you follow people and people follow you. If you’re new to twitter follow some celebrities or other people you find interesting. Many times other followers of those celebs/personalities will follow you. Your posts are called tweets and are 160 characters or less. This is one of the reasons you’ll see a lot of abbreviations/internet shorthand and poor grammar on there. @ before a twitter username is a mention. Tweets with a mention will show up in that persons timeline. Words with a # before them are hashtags. Hashtags allow your tweets to be searchable. Also if there are a lot of tweets with the same hashtag that then that topic becomes trending. Hashtags are all one word with no punctuation. Example: #SDMBRocks ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/4 "2013-02-10T02:03:28Z")
**stevie** -Thanks for explaining hashtags! BTW, character limit is 140 not 160. ---
**Author:** ![steviep24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@steviep24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steviep24)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/5 "2013-02-10T02:28:43Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > **stevie** -Thanks for explaining hashtags! BTW, character limit is 140 not 160. Thanks for the correction. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/6 "2013-02-10T02:31:09Z")
Twitter is the definition of something you would never think you want or need but turns out to be neat. To understand: sign up, follow people or companies that interest you. Who do you listen to or read (politics, comedy, artists.etc?) Any local sportscasters? Local restaurants? I wouldn’t tweet anything for a while, just check it out, see what you think. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/7 "2013-02-10T03:00:12Z")
I don’t do Twitter. With FB, SDMB, another forum I frequent, and real life, there already aren’t enough hours in the day. I can’t keep adding in every new thing that comes along. But that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/8 "2013-02-10T03:01:44Z")
> [@steviep24](#): > > … #SDMBRocks I’m going to tweet that. I have about 6 followers. Will this tweet go to the world, or just my followers? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/9 "2013-02-10T03:06:31Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I don’t do Twitter. With FB, SDMB, another forum I frequent, and real life, there already aren’t enough hours in the day. I can’t keep adding in every new thing that comes along. > > But that’s just me. So your answer to the OP’s question is “no.” OP, it may help if you think of Twitter as a microblogging service, as it has sometimes been described. It’s just another platform on which people can share their thoughts, except that they are limited to 240 characters, so those thoughts are brief by necessity. **Nzinga** , assuming that was a legit question, all of your six followers would see your tweet show up in their feeds. Also, anyone else in the world who visited your Twitter page directly would see it. It would also turn up in the search results for anyone who searched on “#SDMBRocks”. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/10 "2013-02-10T03:09:37Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > … > **Nzinga** , assuming that was a legit question, all of your six followers would see your tweet show up in their feeds. Also, anyone else in the world who visited your Twitter page directly would see it. It would also turn up in the search results for anyone who searched on “#SDMBRocks”. Oh, it was a legit question. Thanks. I am still trying to make an honest effort to stay on top of this social networking thing. Hey, MsWhatsit, remember we tried Google plus? I gave up on it pretty quickly. Do you still mess around with it? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/11 "2013-02-10T03:14:29Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Oh, it was a legit question. Thanks. I am still trying to make an honest effort to stay on top of this social networking thing. > > Hey, MsWhatsit, remember we tried Google plus? I gave up on it pretty quickly. Do you still mess around with it? Ugh. I have a friend who drank the Google+ Kool-Aid and totally deleted his Facebook account. Then he moved to England. (I believe this was unrelated to joining Google+, however.) So my only way to keep in touch with him now is via G+. The good news is that I only have to log in once a week or so to keep up with the posts on there. I could actually write a fairly lengthy post on the ways that Google screwed up the rollout of G+. Suffice it to say, they did screw it up, and it’s a ghost town. I’ve pretty much given up on it too. My expat friend claims to love it, but I’m like, dude, there is _nobody on here_. He says, well, he uses it to follow bloggers that are interesting. I’m like, yeah, that’s what Twitter is for, and by the way, all those people you follow are just double-posting the content from their Facebook and Twitter feeds, so remind me why I need to come here again? Edit: Also, up there where I said tweets are limited to 240 characters, just pretend I said the right number, whatever that is. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/12 "2013-02-10T08:23:13Z")
Thanks for the replies so far. I feel some of the fog has been lifted, especially around the hash tag! Question aboit the hash tags. Do they have to appear at the end of your “tweet”, or can they be anywhere in the message? Same with the @ symbol… What are the rules of usage? Finally, is everbody’s twitter page viewable by anyone else who has a twitter account, or can you have control on who sees your personal page? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/13 "2013-02-10T08:34:48Z")
Hashtags and @names can appear anywhere within the tweet. Thus they can serve the dual purpose of being both words in the tweet as well as links to things. You can set your Twitter page to be visible only to those who follow you, and you can also make it so you have to approve any followers. Most people keep their Twitter pages public, IME. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/14 "2013-02-10T12:43:21Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Thanks for the replies so far. I feel some of the fog has been lifted, especially around the hash tag! > > Question aboit the hash tags. Do they have to appear at the end of your “tweet”, or can they be anywhere in the message? Same with the @ symbol… What are the rules of usage? > > Finally, is everbody’s twitter page viewable by anyone else who has a twitter account, or can you have control on who sees your personal page? There is something special with the @: if you start a tweet with @someone, **it won’t show up in your followers’ feeds**. But they can still see it if they visit your page. It’s meant for replies - go to any famous person’s page to see a list of them. If you want to reply but still want everyone to see, some people put a space first - _@ (_ is a space). And with #, if you look at the trending topics, you’ll see a few that aren’t #. You don’t really need # to be searchable. I think the uses are 1) 1-click searching 2) standardization e.g. straight dope or straightdope or sdmb? ---
**Author:** ![steviep24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@steviep24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steviep24)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/15 "2013-02-10T13:54:12Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Edit: Also, up there where I said tweets are limited to 240 characters, just pretend I said the right number, whatever that is. Although I did say 160 characters upthread tweets are actually limited to 140 characters. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/16 "2013-02-10T16:01:44Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > There is something special with the @: if you start a tweet with @someone, **it won’t show up in your followers’ feeds**. Unless your follower also follows the person you are @ing, and then they’ll see the whole exchange in their feed. If you want to send something privately, you can use a DM (Direct Message), but that only works if the intended recipient follows you. Twitter isn’t really ideal for private chats, it’s intended to be a public conversation. ---
**Author:** ![eltro102](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@eltro102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eltro102)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/17 "2013-02-10T18:13:04Z")
btw, the reason twitter messages are limited to 140 characters is because a text message is limited to 160 (20 is reserved for the name and stuff), so you can send and receive tweets by texting ---
**Author:** ![computergeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@computergeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/computergeek)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/18 "2013-02-10T19:55:29Z")
I mainly use Twitter to follow others, like celebrities, breaking news, entertainment news, along with some friends, and sometimes ask questions of the celebrities or critics, or others that I follow. I tend to not tweet out my own thoughts of the day and don’t care for that. I use it more to keep track of various kinds of news that’s going on and interesting articles that get printed on the web. Because I don’t care about tweeting out my own thoughts, I make no effort to gain followers and have less than 2 dozen (most of them my friends or acquaintances that I’ve followed). Personally, I think Twitter is best for following news, but it all depends on how you want to use it. ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/19 "2013-02-10T20:05:11Z")
> [@computergeek](#): > > I mainly use Twitter to follow others, like celebrities, breaking news, entertainment news, along with some friends, and sometimes ask questions of the celebrities or critics, or others that I follow. I tend to not tweet out my own thoughts of the day and don’t care for that. I use it more to keep track of various kinds of news that’s going on and interesting articles that get printed on the web. Because I don’t care about tweeting out my own thoughts, I make no effort to gain followers and have less than 2 dozen (most of them my friends or acquaintances that I’ve followed). Personally, I think Twitter is best for following news, but it all depends on how you want to use it. This is exactly how i use it. I am a private person so I tend not to volunteer personal info, etc. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837/20 "2013-02-10T20:13:33Z")
> [@computergeek](#): > > I mainly use Twitter to follow others, like celebrities, breaking news, entertainment news, along with some friends, and sometimes ask questions of the celebrities or critics, or others that I follow. I tend to not tweet out my own thoughts of the day and don’t care for that. I use it more to keep track of various kinds of news that’s going on and interesting articles that get printed on the web. Because I don’t care about tweeting out my own thoughts, I make no effort to gain followers and have less than 2 dozen (most of them my friends or acquaintances that I’ve followed). Personally, I think Twitter is best for following news, but it all depends on how you want to use it. Same here. But unlike **tomcar** , it’s because I’m boring IMO. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-can-someone-explain-to-me-how-this-works/649837.md?page=2)