When I first signed up for Twitter in March 2007, the social networking site was just beginning to find an audience. But most of the people joining then were habitual early-adopters, not average social network users.

Two years later, Twitter has finally found significant worldwide popularity, thanks in large part to attention from the mainstream media.

Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and most major news networks have run stories on the social network, and shows such as ESPN’s “Around the Horn” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” have incorporated the site into their broadcasts.

Even celebrities like John Mayer, Ashton Kutcher, Martha Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, and Shaquille O’Neal are Twittering these days.

But not everyone understands why the site is suddenly getting so popular.

Whenever I’ve tried to explain Twitter to someone who doesn’t get the site’s appeal, I’ve found that it is actually a very challenging task. After all, on the surface, Twitter can easily look like nothing more than a relative of Facebook’s status updates.

However, there is much more to the site.

To really understand Twitter, you have to dive in and use the service to its fullest.

Connect it to your mobile phone, use a desktop client, reply to other people’s tweets. Most importantly, don’t just follow people you already know. Go find and follow other people whose updates you find interesting, then interact with them. You’ll find yourself having some excellent conversations that way.

Because if you treat Twitter as just a status update service, you’ll be barely scratching the surface of its usefulness, and you’ll probably give up on it quickly.

Why miss out?

Bo Burnham was a typical high school student. He went to class, performed with his school’s theatre troupe, and taught himself how to play piano and guitar.

Eventually, he started writing his own comedic songs, and wanted to share them with his older brother, who was off at college. So in December 2006, Burnham uploaded his first two songs to the video-sharing site YouTube.

He got a lot more than he bargained for.

With a comedic style somewhere between Demetri Martin and George Carlin, Burnham quickly became an internet sensation. His videos have been viewed nearly 40 million times.

(watch Burnham’s most viewed video)

Burnham even received a call from the talent agent who represents Dave Chappelle and Drew Carey, who told him “I gotta represent you.”

Now, his YouTube stardom has extended well outside the internet.

He recently released a self-titled CD with Comedy Central Records, and his Comedy Central special will air on March 27.

Hollywood is in his sights, as well. He will appear in Rob Schneider’s “Virgin on Bourbon Street,” and Adam Sandler’s “Funny People.” He also is working with Judd Apatow on what has been described as the anti-“High School Musical.”

Burnham’s success demonstrates YouTube’s growing influence on the entertainment industry, which has embraced the site as a legitimate source for talent.

Brooke Brodack, known on YouTube as ‘Brookers,’ was signed by Carson Daly back in 2006. “What the Buck” host Michael Buckley has a development deal deal with HBO. Musician Terra Naomi scored a record deal with Universal Music Group.

Those are just a few of the many YouTube users to cross over into the mainstream media, and the list keeps growing.

Think you can be the next big thing? Maybe YouTube is the place to be.

As online social networks become increasingly prominent in everyday life, competition between the networks is more intense than ever.

In order to keep users interested, the networks are all constantly changing and evolving to try and meet users’ needs and stay one step ahead of the other networks.

And the pressure is greatest when you’re the front-runner.

Just ask Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook. Noticing the rapidly increasing popularity of Twitter, Zuckerberg and his team at Facebook decided to redesign their site in an attempt to stave off their competitor.

The problem is, few Facebook users actually like the Twitter-esque redesign.

Some whining and complaining is inevitable when you change something people are familiar with. That happened the last time Facebook underwent a major redesign, but it did not take the users long to figure out the benefits of the new design and get accustomed to the changes.

That doesn’t seem to be happening this time around. Instead, Facebook has tried to become so much like Twitter that it has neglected much of what made it popular to begin with.

Everything on Facebook, status updates, wall posts, posted photos, shared links, and so on, is now incorporated into one Twitter-like stream.

And it just doesn’t work. Facebook’s news feed was once a well-organized set of highlights from what your friends are up to. Now, it’s a jumbled mess of everything your friends post to Facebook.

“I can’t find anything,” one user writes, “I don’t know what my own status is half the time!”

Another writes, “stop trying to be Twitter, stick with what you are/were good at and put the news feed back to how it was.”

That is the popular sentiment, it seems. In a Facebook poll about the new layout, users’ opinions are very clear. At the time of this writing, approximately 545,000 users voted against the layout. Only 34,000 voted approvingly.

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but for Facebook, it may prove to be the network’s biggest mistake yet.

“I’m almost ready to use MySpace again,” said one Facebook user.

Ouch.

Matt Jones’ arrest for violation of his probation and his subsequent release by the Jacksonville Jaguars is yet another black spot on what has been a tumultuous year for the team.

The team’s troubles began in September, right before the start of the regular season. Offensive lineman Richard Collier was shot 14 times outside of an apartment building in downtown Jacksonville while waiting for a friend with his teammate, Kenny Pettway. Two of the bullets struck Collier’s spine, leaving him paraplegic, and his left leg had to be amputated.

Just like that, Collier’s football career was over, and his teammates were in shock.

The team lost its first two games, including a tough rivalry game against the Tennessee Titans.

And though they won the two games that followed, they would win only three more for the rest of the season, and would end the season at 5-11.

Most of the on-the-field struggles can be attributed to injuries, primarily on the offensive line, which had almost every starter suffer a significant injury.

The receiving corps was also of little help. The team led the league in dropped passes. The team’s leading receiver was, incidentally, Matt Jones.

Jones is not even the only player with legal troubles.

Wide receiver Reggie Williams was arrested for DWI and possession of marijuana. Like Jones, he was released. Another receiver, Dennis Northcutt, is being sued in Los Angeles for allegedly arranging the beating of his pregnant ex-girlfriend.

Now, the team must recover from its character issues as well as fill the many holes on the roster that were created this offseason. The team needs to find quality players for its offensive line, its receiving corps, and nearly its entire defense.

Those are tough tasks, and its up to head coach Jack Del Rio and recently-promoted general manager Gene Smith to put together a team that can bounce back from what might be the most difficult year in franchise history.

If they don’t succeed, Del Rio will likely be looking for a new job next year.

After an abysmal ten years of men’s basketball at the University of North Florida, head coach Matt Kilcullen was fired Sunday.

Kilcullen will leave UNF with an overall record of 98-186, and his team finished his final season at 8-22, which is considered an improvement compared to other seasons in recent memory.

The decision comes not long after Lee Moon from the University of Alabama-Birmingham was hired as UNF’s new athletic director.

Moon has stressed the importance of improving the University’s basketball program, as without a football team, basketball is the school’s flagship sport.

Attendance at basketball games and other UNF sporting events is consistently low. If you ask students why, they will all give you some form of the same answer:

“The teams suck.”

And now that the Ospreys will be eligible for postseason play for the first time this coming season as the school finishes its four-year transition to Division I, winning, and the fan support that comes with it, is more important than ever.

Social networking has come a long way since Friendster and MySpace first hit it big.

Originally, these social networks were more of an internet sideshow, a simple way for people to make some new friends, and get back in touch with old ones.

Now, however, social networking has become so ingrained in our increasingly technological culture that it is a part of everyday life for many.

Sit in the back of any college classroom and you will likely see Facebook’s familiar blue navigation bar displayed across the top of laptop screens all around the room as students tune out their professor and tune in to what their friends are up to.

Though Facebook was originally exclusively for college students, the site expanded in 2006 to allow anyone to join in, and it has reached an unprecedented level of popularity since. It recently surpassed MySpace as the largest social network, with over 175 million active members worldwide.

And it’s not just kids and college students flocking to the site. It is no longer unusual for a student to be friends with their parents, or in some cases even grandparents, on Facebook.

Many people, it seems, are now more likely to contact someone via Facebook than by e-mail. Some college professors have even found that their students contact them more frequently and comfortably on Facebook.

The site has rapidly become a key part of modern socialization.

Although it is easily the most popular, Facebook is far from the only social network people have turned to for keeping in touch with their friends.

Hear several people receive a text message simultaneously? It’s probably a post from one of the group’s friends on Twitter.

Twitter is a much simpler service than most social networks. It asks its users “what are you doing?” and gives them 140 characters with which to respond.

You can answer this question on the site itself, but the real novelty of Twitter is that you can easily post to it by text message, and your friends’ posts, called “tweets,” can be sent to your phone.

These tweets frequently turn into full conversations between a whole group of friends regardless of where they are, and without any of them needing to use a computer.

Even television networks such as CNN and ESPN have gotten in on the action, with hosts asking viewers to follow their Twitter accounts and respond to their posts.

The usage of social networks has ballooned in just a few short years, and they have cemented their place in modern society. And as the various networks evolve in a competition for users, we can look forward to the next big social networking innovation, whatever that may be.

Regardless of political affiliation, today, every American should be proud to be just that, an American.

In my lifetime, there have been just three presidents prior to today’s inauguration: Bush, Clinton, Bush.

Though I was too young to remember much of the first two, I certainly know what the last eight years have been like. Needless to say, like most Americans, I’m not too fond of this last president.

But, today, that means very little. This isn’t about Bush. This isn’t about changing which political party is in charge. And, though some cringe at the thought, this isn’t about taxes, laws, Iraq, or bailouts. Not today.

No, this is something very different.

This is about the enthusiasm, the unity, the patriotism, and the hope that so many Americans have found in the election of Barack Obama as the president of the United States of America.

After years of a presidency and a government that divided the nation time after time and tarnished our country’s image abroad, we can look forward to a leader who not only represents us well, but brings so many together.

If you need proof of his impact on people, you need only to watch the tears of joy stream down the faces of his audience members during a speech.

He has shattered racial barriers many thought they would never see broken, and he has done so while promising much-desired change and hope for the future of this country.

Republican or democrat, black or white, man or woman, today, every American citizen should be proud of how far their country has come, and what this presidency means for the future of America.

Yes, we can. And, yes, we did.

While the current, tenth installment of CBS’s "Big Brother" is a welcome step in the right direction after the show’s last two abysmal seasons, it could still be significantly improved, especially if the producers borrow some ideas from other countries’ versions of the show.

1. Better balance the competitive aspects with the social ones.

A major difference between the U.S. version of "Big Brother" and its counterparts around the world is the amount of strategy and competition in the U.S. version.

Whereas housemates in the U.K. are thrown in "jail" and housemates in Australia receive "strikes" for discussing gameplay elements such as nominations, the U.S. version is built almost solely on strategy, alliances, and other competitive aspects that are unsurprisingly similar to "Survivor."

Because of this, fans who only watch the show and do not watch the Internet feeds or "Big Brother: After Dark" miss out on most of the social interactions of the houseguests.

An easy solution to this is to air the show more often. In the U.S., the show only airs three times a week, one show for evictions, one for nominations, and one for the Power of Veto. A fourth show, or an extra hour on eviction nights, would significantly increase the visibility of the social interactions between the houseguests.

2. Increase the diversity of the houseguests.

Fortunately, this isn’t nearly as glaring of an issue as it used to be. "Big Brother 10" is taking the show back to its roots, according to the producers, and I’m inclined to agree. The houseguests actually seem to be ‘real people’ for the first time since the show’s All-Star season (#7).

Still, there’s room for improvement. The producers seem to think that diversity only applies to one’s physical characteristics and sexual orientation.

Diversity is so much more than that. Go find the interesting personalities, the ones that make you think long and hard, and challenge the way you look at other people. That’s true diversity.

3. Have one episode a week follow the "Big Mouth" format.

The U.K. and Australian versions of "Big Brother" air a show called "Big Mouth," which is somewhat along the lines of the "House Calls" webcast here in the U.S.

With a panel of hosts, consisting of comedians and former houseguests, the show would highlight recent events in the house with the panel discussing the houseguests. Additionally, the most recent evictee could make a prominent guest appearance, providing a much more in-depth interview for the "Big Brother" audience than the always-brief post-eviction interview by Julie Chen.

The show could incorporate a live audience by allowing them to ask the most recent evictee questions, similar to the U.K. version of "Big Mouth."

4. Make Big Brother a prominent character.

It seems that on every "Big Brother" besides the U.S. version, Big Brother himself is actually a character on the show, interacting with the houseguests and, in some cases, playing the role of the house villain.

In the U.S., it is almost as if Big Brother doesn’t exist. All you’ll ever hear of Big Brother is a "[name], please go to the diary room" or "stop that!"

You never hear Big Brother speak directly to the houseguests, not even in the diary room, unlike in other countries’ versions where these interactions with Big Brother are highlighted.

The U.S. version is missing a prime opportunity by not expanding on the Big Brother concept fully.

5. Give the power back to the people.

Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of the U.S. version of "Big Brother" is the minimal audience interaction.

The first season of "Big Brother" followed the traditional format of the houseguests nominating and the public doing the evicting, but in every subsequent season, the format has been closed-off to involve only the houseguests.

This makes the show more like "Survivor" than what the "Big Brother" concept was meant to be.

A compromise between the two systems would truly be a welcome twist.

For example, retaining the current Head-of-Household and Power of Veto system while forcing the nominated houseguests to face a public vote. Under that, however, it would be wise to require at least three nominees to add extra unpredictability to the results.

Overall, though, "Big Brother 10" is a welcome return to much of what has made the "Big Brother" series fun to watch. Hopefully the show will continue its improvement and will be around for many seasons to come.

In the weeks leading up to the third season finale of ‘Lost‘ last year, an anonymous tipster known only as "Lostfan108" delivered what he claimed to be spoilers for the season’s last two episodes to a Lost-centric spoilers blog.

After the episodes aired, Lostfan108’s spoilers were proven completely accurate.

The producers of ‘Lost’ were dismayed by the complete spoiling of the episodes, and went into "radio silence," abstaining from releasing any information about the next season and turning down interviews.

But Lostfan108 has managed to strike again.

Lostfan108 delivered spoilers to the DarkUFO ‘Lost’ spoiler blog for all three parts of the fourth season finale. While these spoilers were far less detailed than last year’s spoilers, the major revelations of the episode were available well before the episodes aired.

This latest successful spoiling has re-sparked a major debate about spoilers.

Many fans claim they taint the show and ruin the experience for all who read them, going so far as to say those who read spoilers are not true fans of the show. But others enjoy the experience of finding the information and knowing ahead of time.

We know the show’s producers loathe spoilers, but do the spoilers really have a negative impact on the show?

It can be argued that anyone who is going to read spoilers and not watch the episode would not watch the episode anyway, instead opting to read a summary the next morning.

But one can also make a very valid case against spoilers by pointing out that fans who read message boards or chat with friends, family, or co-workers about the show are extremely susceptible to unwillingly having the show spoiled for them.

What do you think about spoilers? Are they good? Bad? Do you think they have their place?

I recently decided to take up guitar, something I have wanted to do for a long time, but never did until now. I knew it would be challenging to learn how to play the instrument, but I definitely didn’t expect some of the seemingly basic difficulties I’ve run into early on.

One of those difficulties was the A chord.

The A chord seems easy at first glance. You have to hold down the second, third, and fourth strings (B, G, and D, respectively) on the second fret. Doesn’t sound too hard, but for many guitar players, myself included, it’s a challenge.

Squeezing all three of those fingers on the same fret can be difficult in itself, then you’ve got to ward off the ever-dreaded fret buzz.

Most instructional sites and videos seem to prefer fingering the chord by placing the index finger on the fourth string, the middle finger on the third string, and the ring finger on the second string. That method causes the index finger on the fourth string to be all the way back next to the first fret, meaning you’ve got to press the string down extra hard to prevent fret buzz (especially on an acoustic).

Not satisfied with this method, I tried some other suggestions, including barring (to ‘barre’ means to hold down several strings on the same fret with one finger) all three of the strings, but I wasn’t a fan of having to avoid or mute the first string.

I finally found a workable solution in placing my ring finger on the second string, my middle finger on the fourth string, and sliding my index finger in between the two on the third string. Not only is this method the most comfortable one I came across, it also allows you to get all three fingers close to the front of the fret.

To see a demonstration of this fingering method, watch this video by Justin from www.justinguitar.com:

Hopefully this helps other beginning guitar players get past this early hurdle with ease.

Do you play an instrument? If so, did you encounter any challenges with seemingly basic skills early on?

If not, why not? There’s no time like the present.