Young adults aren't using Twitter enough: should they?

I've been slowly warming to Twitter over the last few months. I've bombed it before and struggled with it ever since, but with my new knowledge of hashtags and the search function, it's getting easier and faster to find real-time updates on events which are happening.

As much as it is a social media tool and not a knowledge bank, I still haven't become too accustomed to adding people as much as others have.

But should students be using Twitter as much as the average user? I still don't really see a need for it. Sure, if you want a quick update on something which is happening in real time, then yes - Twitter is a great engine for such a thing. But besides that, nothing really sticks out to me too much.

Even with student union's and events which are organised by PR firms and events managers, using Twitter to keep up to date with university events and nights out can be useful - especially as you can tie them in with your Facebook updates; highly useful as everyone knows, the average students spends 119% of their time on the site.

According to CNET News, only 22% of 18-24 year olds use Twitter. Fair enough, it's a start but it doesn't seem to have captivated the iGeneration audience too much.

Keeping up to date with breaking news and current affairs, real-time events and those sorts of things are what Twitter can be used for. Communications on a mass scale, yes, to some extent. Keeping in touch with family and friends - personally I'd still use my BlackBerry, but then again, old habits live on.

What do you get out of Twitter? What's the X factor that I'm seemingly missing out on? Leave your message after the beep.