Explain how twitter works please?

[Greg]

With Twitter, you get 160 characters to say what you want. When people are using the '@' it means they are directing a tweet toward someone in specific. For example, if I want to send a tweet to someone who's Twitter 'Handle'(or address) is JonDoe I would put @JonDoe and then whatever I want to say to them, so they will see this message is at them. The '#' is what they call Hashtagging. What it does is make that subject that you typed after the # a topic. If that 'topic' gets into enough tweets, they it becomes a "Trend." Here is what Wikipedia has to say:

"Users can group posts together by topic or type by use of hashtags – words or phrases prefixed with a "#" sign. Similarly, the "@" sign followed by a username is used for mentioning or replying to other users. To repost a message from another Twitter user, and share it with one's own followers, the retweet function is symbolized by "RT" in the message."

I hope this all helps