Enjoy a nap. Eat a sandwich. Shoot hoops. Teens do a variety of activities to wind down after a rigorous day of taking tests, writing essays and solving equations. To relax after school, senior Danielle Coleman opens her laptop and tweets.

Coleman is joining 10 million other twitterers in the latest social networking craze.

Coleman, who also has a Facebook account, said she enjoys Twitter because it’s more individualized.

"I like Twitter because it’s all personal," Coleman said. "There are no distracting applications, games, or ads you have to worry about unlike Facebook and Myspace."

Twitter, founded in 2006, has exploded onto the technology scene as a way for users to answer the question "What are you doing?" Twitterers, as they’re called, can access the site from a cell phone or a computer. Once registered, a person can search for people to follow or be followed by others. Each tweet, or message, is limited to 140 characters and is sent in real time.

Coleman admits she has only 11 followers, and she likes to follow celebrities.

"I follow friends and some celebrities," Coleman said. "I actually had to stop following John Mayer because he tweets too much, and it fills my homepage."

"I usually tweet about my random thoughts, music and interesting sites I find on the Internet," she said.

Junior Laura DeLeon who has 47 followers said she likes to follow celebrities including Mitchell Davis, The Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift. She also likes to twitter friends "I have a lot of friends out of state who don’t get to see me very often," DeLeon said. "It’s a great method to keep people updated. I also like to look at how the famous people are; it makes them seem more like normal individuals."

Coleman suggested that people who are tired of public friend sites like Myspace and Facebook should check out Twitter. "They can also follow thair favorite celebrities or musicians and get a glimpse into their life that Myspace and Facebook can’t show," Coleman said.
Celebrities are some of the most popular users; in fact, actor Ashton Kutcher was the first twitterer to have one million followers beating out CNN. Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, and Britney Spears (see their tweets at right) are right behind Kutcher with nearly a million followers each.

Seniors Rodrigo Picasarri and James Alex both said they always check out the tweets of the Discovery Channel’s Adam Savage from his show Mythbusters.

"I like to read what they are doing behind the scenes of the show on their tweets," said Picasarri. "It makes them seem more personal to know what they are doing at any moment."

Twilight star Taylor Lautner is a favorite of junior Jenny Le.

Even President Barack Obama has a twitter account with over one million followers, though he has aides to write his tweets. Arizona Senator John McCain was one of the first politicians to conduct a live "twitterview" with ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos last March. They twittered about current policies, and McCain ended the interview with the tweet, "Now I look forward to reading our followers comments and insults."

The media has certainly taken advantage of this new form of communication. Every news outlet from the giant network to the small-town newspaper have created news updates on Twitter. For instance, CNN reports breaking news to its over 1.5 million followers. Local Valley media like Channel 15 updates Arizona news to its followers.

Twackle is the newest offshoot of the popular site, describing itself as "Your Sportsbar in the Twittersphere." It collects tweets from your favorite teams and sends them straight to your Twitter account. Check out the Phoenix Suns Twackle at www.nba.com/suns.

Whether it’s to check out celebrities, athletes or just friends, WHS students are enjoying the new site.

"Depending on who you are following, it’s a great way to keep informed," said DeLeon. "It’s a place where you can express how you feel."

"It’s a perfect way to get things off your mind whenever you feel like it," said Picasarri.

Le said that it’s a place she can "vent when I have problems or when I am just feeling down and to update people on what I’m doing."