"Most of us tweet while we're doing everything. If I could tweet in my sleep, I probably would," said Kyle Thomas.

Taylor Thomas, left, and his brother Kyle Thomas "tweet" on their phones at the YK Tweet-up. Users of internet social networking tool Twitter descended on Javaroma Saturday to meet in real life. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

"(Twitter) runs off a website and people can use their phones to update their status, and people can follow the updates on the website," said Amy Hacala.

"You follow people who you find interesting. You basically subscribe to their updates," said Hacala, comparing Twitter to a constant stream of Facebook status updates, which users call "tweets."

The Twitter website explains that "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

"It's easier to meet new people because you don't have to know somebody in order to check out their page," said Jean Escalante, citing that users of twitter don't give away as much of their personal information as they would on other social networking sites like Facebook or Myspace.

"I've probably been tweeting for about a month and a half now," said Escalante.

"I'm always on (Twitter)."

Twitter is easy to access at any time, people at the Tweet-up said.

"There's applications for iPods, phones, there's a website (where) you can get Firefox plug-ins," said Thomas, who occasionally "tweeted" on his cell phone while at Javaroma.

Thomas said that Twitter has been around for a long time, and has only just spiked in popularity.

Megan Holsapple attributed this spike to Ashton Kutcher, as he is apparently a very popular user of the service – but many other celebrities use it as well. Even US President Barack Obama.

After the elections in the states last fall, "Obama tweeted to everybody that he won," said Nancy Zimmerman.

Thomas assured this reporter that soon everyone in Yellowknife will be "tweeting" away on Twitter.