Your worldview in 140 characters or less

*First appeared in the Aug. 13 edition of the Laurel Chronicle newspaper

You’re looking for news, any news. Who wrecked their car while texting and driving? What country just banned Justin Bieber from performing? What’s the latest craze in the cat video world? What elected leader had a major gaffe on live television?

If you’re like me, you’re part of the estimated 19 percent of online adults who find the answers to all these questions – and much, much more – on the social media site known as Twitter.

Twitter 101 consists of five parts: First, your name on the network is called a “handle” and is always preceded by the “at” sign. For instance, President Obama’s twitter handle is @BarackObama. Second, the people who subscribe to your account on Twitter are called your “followers.” In this case, @BarackObama has 44.9 million followers.

Third, the messages you send to your followers are called “tweets.” (Related: Your messages can be “retweeted,” which is sort of like forwarding an email you received without changing any text.) Fourth, and most importantly, your tweets cannot be longer than 140 characters. This can be challenging for the verbose among us. In literary terms, Twitter’s a playground for Hemingway but a curse for Faulkner.

The fifth and final part of this Twitter lesson is the hashtag, which I previously called the number sign. Typically, hashtags are used to note the subject matter of the tweet. Here’s what it looks like: “I’m explaining social media. #TwitterLesson”

Twitter serves as sort of a clearinghouse of information: You can get a lot of real-time information in not a lot of words and decide instantly which stories to further investigate. It’s a system that feeds my generational need for instant gratification and one that I suspect will have devastating impacts on the future. Alas.

Twitter is not only useful for news, but it’s also highly entertaining. Politicos, journalists, elected officials, and others use it to share their platforms, report on legislation, “live-tweet” (tweet about something in real-time) events, and, on occasion, argue amongst themselves.

If you’re not on Twitter, here’s a snapshot of what you’re missing.

Earlier this month, Gov. Phil Bryant (@PhilBryantMS) tweeted a picture of his visit to the set of The Hollars, the Miss.-based movie directed by John Krasinski of The Office fame.

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves (@TateReeves) had a little fun with his account during the Neshoba County Fair by using the hashtag “#TaterTots” in reference to his supporters.

In late March, House Speaker Philip Gunn (@PhilipGunnMS) showed Jones County a little love by tweeting a picture with a basketball signed by the Jones County Junior College men’s basketball team, which won the national championship. (#GoBobcats)

On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Public Service Commissioner and rumored statewide candidate Brandon Presley (@BrandonPresley) invited his followers to a community center gathering to hear him sing country music. He’s really got this populism thing down to a science.

Jones County native and head of the Mississippi Democratic Party Rickey Cole (@RickeyCole) tweeted his observation that “the nasty little habit of petulance masquerading as ambition sooner or later leads to irrelevance.” Twitter’s as fine a place as any to be mysterious and philosophical, I should add.

Journalists thrive on Twitter, too. Sam Hall with the Clarion Ledger uses it to post links to his stories, to defend those stories,* and to engage in general commentary.

*The New York Times declared last week (via Twitter, of course) that no one wins a Twitter fight.

Sam (@SamRHall) recently posted a picture of a nasty Facebook message he had gotten from someone about his coverage of the Miss. Senate (#mssen) race. In understated sarcasm, Sam called it a “delightful message from a reader.”

Political cartoonist Marshall Ramsey (@MarshallRamsey) is more than amusing. He tweets about politics, weather, running, and other things, like the first day of school. From his Twitter account: “Planning for D-Day, also known as the First Day of School. Praying going on. Plus some swearing. And vomiting. Ramp about to drop.”

The network is a mashup of politics, news, jokes, snippy comments, and virtually anything else you want it to be. After all, no two Twitter accounts are the same. You control which news sources to follow; you control which accounts to read. In other words, you narrow your focus to the people and organizations you want to follow, not necessarily those you need to follow.

In the end, I’m not so sure that’s a good thing, but it appears to be the wave of the future – for now. So, now that you’ve gotten a better handle on Twitter, why not take the next step and get an actual “handle”?