I HAVE recently discovered Twitter, having previously been under the impression that it was as inconsequential and unedifying as the implications of the name might suggest. Tiny little unseen birds making a pleasant but uninformative noise in your immediate vicinity.

I am happy to admit that I was wrong. Twitter is perhaps not for everyone. Some people have not the slightest desire to share much detail of their lives with others.

And, indeed, many people should probably resist the temptation to share as much as they do.

But, unlike Facebook, which I quickly discovered was not for me when I tried it a year or so ago, Twitter is a rather wonderful tool that is as useful or trivial as you choose to make it.

You put information out there and access information from those whom you choose to follow.

I follow friends, work colleagues, Wycombe Wanderers and its players, the Bucks Free Press (of course) and random people like Alan Sugar, the Dalai Lama and Danny Baker. You pick whose messages you see – and that’s the joy of it.

On at least two occasions it has saved me considerable grief, as I am lucky enough to be followed by hundreds of people all over the world who are fond of Doctor Who.

When I was stranded at an airport in Australia and tweeted of my plight, messages went round the world and back to the man who was in the wrong place to collect me. If I have a problem with my computer, a benevolent anonymous well-wisher will advise me – and all in 140 letters or less – and therein lies the genius of twitter.

It is not the vehicle for lengthy soul-searching but rather a means of getting your message out there, of sharing the frustrations and joys of your day. Today I am trying to find a reasonably priced Wi-Fi enabled mobile phone to send out to my daughter in Greece so that she can phone us more reasonably than via her UK sim. I tweeted about my search five minutes ago and already have 20 or more helpful ideas.

And whereas I would never give my address or phone number out to the world at large, I am perfectly happy to share my Twitter address with all and sundry – it’s @SawbonesHex, if you’re remotely interested. I’ll leave you to work out why I chose that particular pseudonym.