“Only connect,� the English novelist E. M. Forster admonished mankind. I don’t think, however, that he meant that we should connect exclusively, or continuously. Habitual users of a new, free communications service called Twitter would disagree. For anyone unfamiliar with the latest trends in technology, “Twitterers� send and receive short messages, called “tweets,� on Twitter’s Web site, with instant messaging software, or with mobile phones. Unlike most text messages, tweets — usually in answer to Twitter’s prompt, “What are you doing?� — are routed among networks of friends. Strangers, called “followers,� can also choose to receive the tweets of people they find interesting.

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