On Father Z's blog, there is a poll on whether the Pope should tweet or not. I voted in the minority who said yes with zeal.
Americans may not realize the importance of tweeting to youth in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. That the media uses it consistently is one thing. That young people have as many as 800 contacts is another. I am not exaggerating when I say that tweeting seems to be getting much bigger than chat, way more than e-mail, which is the oldies way of communicating, and more popular than skype. Like facebook, twitter is the social networking mode. Texting is most common.
I have a problem in that most of my friends e-mail or chat or skype. However, tweeting is convenient. I do not use it much, as most of my friends do not use it. Bother.
The only real problems are my friends who only use the telephone. Maybe they have a mobile. That is a huge problem, as phoning from a mobile to a mobile in Europe is way more expensive than using skype or twitter.
Which is the reason why college students twitter or skype-these are cheap or free.
As to the Pope using twitter, you can look at my comment on Fr. Z where I listed the Popes who used radio, television and movies for the first time. But, here is the original link for information. Cool, huh? First Pope on film: Leo XIII in 1896. First pope to make a radio broadcast: Pius XI c. 1931. First pope to have a ‘full-length movie made about him: Pius XII in 1942 . First pope to speak on TV: Pius XII http://popes-and-papacy.com/wordpress/?p=2765