Twitter is unique in that the popular site has its own language.

According to Twittords.com (the Twitter dictionary), “twitter-ific” is defined as something being extraordinary and positive, and is a combination between the words Twitter and terrific.

Twitter is a growing and popular social networking website where individuals can send and receive short updates in 140 characters or less called “tweets,” which are delivered to that person’s subscribers, otherwise known as “followers” in Twitter language.

The Global Language Monitor, which tracks language trends, declared “twitter” as the most popular English word of 2009.

The Twitter trend appears to be catching on everywhere.

I love Twitter because of its simplicity. Unlike all other social networking sites with distracting games and applications, you only have one question to answer on Twitter: “What’s happening?” You can simply share your thoughts or post links to articles you find interesting to share with your followers. Twitter is a great way to connect with others and meet new people. I have discovered many people through it who have similar interests to mine.

I am also a news junkie, so the main reason I love Twitter is because I can receive updates on breaking news when it happens, from newspapers, television networks and websites across Canada and the world. It is simply much more convenient to be able to receive these updates in one common place, rather than having to visit each website separately. Twitter can do this for you.

Many celebrities, musicians and other public figures have also jumped on the bandwagon.

Some people argue that tweeting about yourself and your mundane daily life makes it appear as if you are self-centered and narcissistic, and bemoan that individuals are shamelessly promoting themselves. But this is not the case.

You are not limited to posting about yourself. You can tweet about other people and basically anything you want. If these kinds of people decide to follow your tweets in the first place, why are they complaining that individuals post too much about themselves? You can simply “unfollow” someone anytime you like. Furthermore, this criticism is directed towards other people, not the Twitter service itself.

Some may also criticize the message limit of 140 characters by arguing that one cannot convey their full thought within so short a space. While it is short, it teaches you how to summarize effectively to get your message across, eliminating unnecessary words.

With Twitter, if you are interested in someone and their updates, you don’t need their permission to begin following them. However, this can also be viewed as negative and creepy in a way, as anyone, even people you don’t know, can be following and reading your updates. But when someone follows you, it boosts your self-esteem, knowing that people are actually interested in and reading your updates.

What it boils down to is that Twitter is brilliant for breaking news updates and getting one step closer to the public figures or celebrities you admire. No other social networking communication sites can match Twitter’s simplicity and “capacity for person-to-person broadcasting.”

No matter what your interests are, Twitter never fails at keeping you informed on all the latest news, gossip and even business developments. Twitter is whatever you want it to be.

But be warned, it is also very addictive. If you start to experience Twithdrawal symptoms, you may be a Tweetoholic and should seek Twittervention immediately.

Brittany Thiessen is a ciminal justice and sociology student at the University of Winnipeg.