Twitter allows 140-character look into the lives of celebrities

Joker Phillips is named head coach of the UK football team at Commonwealth Stadium on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010. Photo by Adam Wolffbrandt

Joker Phillips is named head coach of the UK football team at Commonwealth Stadium on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010. Photo by Adam Wolffbrandt

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In a world of social networking, nothing is quite like Twitter. In fact, these two sentences clearly fit into 140 characters.

I know a lot of people couldn’t care less about Twitter, because what’s so great about 140-character updates about the little things in life? Surely nothing monumental can come from a Twitter post — called a tweet — that someone should waste their time on.

Which is the exact reason I don’t pay attention to my friend’s status updates on Facebook. That’s like tweeting for dummies.

The media loves Twitter for the instant news aspect it brings (it was wildly popular during the Mumbai terrorist attacks) and the fact that the media loves new social networking — oh man, cool kids are doing it. High five @cnnbreakingnews.

In fact, within the last month, CNN, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have all written multiple stories about Twitter. That includes the features sections of each paper writing about which celebrities really tweet (hello @officialTila, @lancearmstrong, @iamdiddy).

I promise you, there’s nothing better than watching Tila Tequila tweet about 15 times in over two minutes about how she wants one of her followers to hook her up with a powerful, older man. Yeah, that same Tila who took a “Shot at Love” to find her future mate (be it male or female) was tired of psycho girls and wanted a stable old man.

Seriously, only on Twitter.

Add the fact that you can follow Heidi Montag and her love for God (not kidding), P. Diddy, Snoop Dogg and Soulja Boy around the globe and watch Lance Armstrong upload pictures of his surgery from a broken collarbone.

Not enough to convince you? Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal gives away free tickets to home and away games on Twitter. Free tickets to an NBA game aren’t something to take lightly.

There isn’t really great educational value when it comes to Twitter — it’s mainly just something to fill your pop culture appetite. It’s the online version of Star magazine. But our culture is fueled by getting information right here, right now — and make it snappy. Getting that fix from celebrities and friends makes Twitter very appealing, especially with the lack of clutter Twitter provides.

Basically, I just want free tickets from Shaq, a look into Tila Tequila’s life and pictures of Lance Armstrong’s broken collarbone. Is that too much to ask?

Not with Twitter.