I need help using Twitter, please help me...?

[DetectiveBoxer]

Recently created a Twitter account only to find that it is very confusing and distressing not getting any replies from anyone.
Say for an example i put 'the flu' in Twitter's search box. A page pops up on screen showing everyone talking about how they didn't go into work today because of the flu.. my question, how can i comment so that everyone else can see my comment? and when i do comment how do i know when somebody has replied??? Please help and oh ya and what the f**k is trendin? ty

[Squidmaster]

You seem to have Twitter wrong.
You don't respond to someone elses message and be seen by everyone who read it. You need to build a collection of followers (lots of people follow you back if you follow them), and only your followers can see any message you put up. To be seen by a person you mention in a post, put their username (after an @).

[Indiana Samy]

Well when you update your status, your followers will see your status, e.g if 'the flu' is trending - which basically is a list of topics a lot of people are talking about - and you update your status talking about 'the flu' everyone else - including your followers - can see it, so they can reply to your status and/or retweet - which is basically copy/pasting your tweet with your username on it

Oh yeah, if you want a lot of followers, you ask others to follow you back or you can get followers by tweeting something interesting or something popular e.g Twilight

[Emm]

There should be a blue box with a quill sign on it, that is what you press to write your own tweet.
To reply to someone else's tweet, hover your mouse ove the tweet and at the bottom a few signs will come up. hover over THEM and click the one that says a reply and start typing.
To see if someone has replied to any of your tweets, click the @ sign that is at the top somewhere. This also shows you if anyone has followed, retweeted or mentioned you in their own tweet.
And finally, a 'trending topic' is something that a large number of people are tweeting about. If you have set your location to, let's say, the uk, then the trending topics will be those that a lot of people in the uk are talking about. For example, sometimes when a good movie is showing, naturally a lot of people will be tweeting about it and letting their followers know. If a large number of people then start tweeting about the film, it will become a trending topic.