Social media is taking over our lives! Just one year ago, I was often asked if I had a Facebook account, and I didn't. I was reluctant to jump into the social media craze, but I finally did after much encouragement from family and friends. Now that I've gotten comfortable with Facebook, people have started asking me if I have a Twitter account!

Between my email account, Facebook, and texting, I often feel I am overloaded with technology. Thinking about opening a Twitter account adds to the technology and social media fear I already face. BUT...I finally gave in after being nudged by my peers. I still haven't figured it all out yet, and I'm not sure what the point really is...but I am going to give it a try.

The process of setting up an account was easy and fast. I downloaded the application to my iPhone so that I can update things on the go...and I used it to follow the happenings during the Annual Meeting. It was actually fun to read what people were tweeting about during the conference.

If you are interested in joining the Twitter community, go to www.twitter.com and create your account. Then, find people you know who are also on Twitter and start "Following" them. Be sure to follow @AADEdiabetes!

I know that you can search Twitter to find out what people are saying about a certain topic. For instance, you can search "diabetes" or "diabetes education" and it will pull up all of the tweets where people have used those words! There is a pretty big learning curve...with many new terms like "hashtags" and "retweets." But there are some online tutorials that can help us figure it out. Just Google "Beginner's Guide to Twitter" and you'll come up with a ton of options.

So...how many of you are on Twitter? How have you used it personally or professionally? Are you reluctant to join? Why?