TWITTERRHEA:Must be something I downloaded

Twitterrhea is a modern ailment afflicting many people who use Twitter. The social networking site has become a web phenomenon, with people queuing up to sample its delights. Unfortunately, once they’ve acquired a taste for Twitter, some are inclined to over-indulge, resulting in a nasty bout of Twitterrhea.

Oh, dear, perhaps I should have said No to that last Tweet

The way Twitter works is fiendishly simple. Users post messages that answer one single question: what are you doing? The answer to that question can be a million different things, from standing on top of Everest to standing in the front row at a Rolling Stones concert. You can post a message with a maximum of 140 characters telling everyone what you’re up to at any given moment. Whether you’re on the bus, at the opera or even in the loo, you can feel part of an online community that is intensely interested in what you’re up to.

Just what we need – more useless information

To the Twitterati, all information is useful, and no detail is too trivial. It doesn’t matter what mundane task you are performing – just Twitter it and it will gain a whole new level of significance. You can post a message via the web, or some use their mobile phones to send a text message – the preferred method for many Twitterers on the go. The posts are picked up by your “followers”, who have chosen to keep track of your daily life.

Who are these “followers”? Some strange cult of the ordinary?

They’re mostly your friends, relatives and colleagues both at home and far-flung corners of the world. Twitter allows people to stay in touch without having to phone or e-mail each other, or write long, boring letters using old-fashioned ink-paper interface hardware. You can choose who you’d like to follow, and keep up with what your mates are doing.

So you’re getting bite-sized chunks of information that are easy to digest?

That’s right – but beware the Twitterer who tweets too much. When someone posts too many tweets in the space of an hour, they risk a bout of Twitterrhea. If the Twitterer fails to curb his prolific Twittering, he or she risks being taken off their followers’ lists, and ending up beaming their messages into empty cyberspace.

So, the message is, know when you’ve had enough?

That’s right. Used sensibly, Twitter can be a very rewarding way of keeping in touch with your network of friends. The short message set-up reduces the risk of becoming boring or long-winded, a problem that afflicts too many bloggers these days. As the website says, the world is all a-twitter about this novel way of staying in touch in real time. Even celebrities are in on the act, and their tweets are eagerly followed by growing armies of fans.

Britney Spears is an avid Twitterer, and Barack Obama is another, although his tweets have dried up a bit since his inauguration. One unlikely star of Twitter is actor/comedian Stephen Fry, who has gathered over 250,000 followers. Recently, Fry found himself trapped in an elevator, and passed the time away posting tweets about his predicament. “I am stuck in a lift on the 26th floor of Centre Point. Hell’s teeth. We could be here for hours. Arse, poo and widdle,” was his opening tweet. The elevator episode became one of the hottest topics on Twitter, and helped make Fry the second most popular Twitterer after Obama.

Try at home:"The world doesn't need a shot-by-shot account of your golf game – I lost the will to live after the fifth hole."

Try at work:"What are you doing? Judging by your sales figures last month, Jenkins, we only need one word to answer that."