A new age has dawned. Gone are the days of Facebook - writing on people's walls and poking friends (and, indeed, enemies) - now it's all about Twitter.

You can barely open a newspaper or magazine these days and not read about some celebrity who has used Twitter, the up and coming social networking site, to promote something, or to make their views about a certain topic clear.

Founded in 2006 by 32-year-old American software architect Jack Dorsey, Twitter is quickly become the social networking site of choice among those ‘in the know'. In March this year, a new survey found that Twitter had a monthly growth of 1,382% - an astonishing figure which shows how quickly the site has progressed and multiplied. And there is a whole new language to go with this phenomenon, as well. If you use Twitter, you will be relieved to know that you are not instantly called a Twit, but a Twitterer. The messages you send and receive on the site are known as Tweets

When I first heard about Twitter, I was dubious - to say the least. I found it hard enough keeping up with Facebook's daily changes, and now there was a whole new website I was expected to learn? But still, I tried my luck on the website and, like most users, became addicted within about 10 minutes.

Twitter works in a similar way to Facebook, in that you ‘follow' people and can post pictures to show friends, but the aim of it is that you can tell people what you are currently doing. With a 140-character limit, it is basically an extended version of the Facebook status bar. But, if you choose, you can update your followers every 2 seconds with details of what you are up to - a fact exploited by many celebrities keen to raise their profiles and encourage more fan activity.

There is also a slightly stalker-ish side to the site though. Fans no longer have to trawl through news websites to find pictures and details of what their favourite stars are doing - all they have to do now is log on to Twitter and check the latest tweets. Some stars, such as Kevin Spacey, update fans fairly infrequently, with sparse details of what they have been doing. An example of Kevin's latest Twitter offering is "Dave says hi. On Letterman". While other celebrities, such as ‘Hannah Montana' star Miley Cyrus, are constantly updating their tweets. Earlier this week, Miley posted a series of tweets explaining how she was visiting a haunted hotel with her mother Tish, and was being spooked by a ghost in room 204 called Ana. As well as the series of tweets, Miley also posted a picture of her cowboy boots with a watery ‘handprint' on - supposedly left by Ana.

Two of the stars who first found Twitter, and first showed journalists the potential of gathering stories from the site, are married couple Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. From the very beginning, these two have been merrily posting away - and have informed fans of their latest news. On Monday, Ashton posted a picture of Demi supposedly with a new Mohican haircut, asking fans what they thought of the new do. It was later revealed that Ashton had photoshopped the image, and Demi's long raven hair is still in tact.

Demi also quickly became a huge fan of ‘Britain's Got Talent' star Susan Boyle after seeing her performance on video sharing website YouTube, and was invited by one of the show's judges Amanda Holden to see the final of the reality TV show. Sadly, Demi couldn't make it to the final, but it does show the far reaching potential of the site as both a social networking site, and a site for people to make friends, and extend invitations.

But with celebrities including British TV presenter Phillip Schofield and US socialite Kim Kardashian tweeting all the time, it has to be asked - do we actually care? Kim posted a picture of herself holding the pink retainer which she wears to bed, prompting one of her followers to ask, "What's next, Kim? The results of your latest pap smear?" When there are countless tweets from the same celebrity, it does all get a bit much.

Speaking from my own point of view, I remember when Facebook came out and everyone was enjoying the wonders of such a revolutionary new website. It was very rare to find someone who hadn't joined the website, and was a brilliant new tool for keeping in touch with friends, and finding out information on those you have since lost touch with. But now Twitter has come out - seemingly obliterating Facebook and MySpace - we have to ask the question, where does it go from here? There is only so much we want to learn about our favourite stars and, as for us normal people, it is hard to keep up with the sheer volume of the celebrities' tweets. It is also being used by businesses and companies who have realised the potential of the site as helping their causes - which could potentially lead to the site being exploited, and being used mainly by businesses, not by individuals - the use for which it was first intended.

Still, it's all a bit of fun, and for the moment - it seems Twitter is truly at the beginning of its reign. So why not try it out yourself and make sure the first person you TWEET is FR2DAY

Here is our quick list of prolific celebrity Twitterers, there are hundreds more so just add any names of interest into the search bar and check out just how much time your fave celeb has on their hands!

1. Stephen Fry
2. Phillip Schofield
3. Jamie Oliver
4. Russell Brand
5. Demi Moore
6. Alan Carr
   
7. John Cleese
   
8. Jonathon Ross
9. Kevin Spacey
10. Lily Allen