A lot of Australians update everything in 140 characters or less since the inception of social networking site, Twitter.

A researcher from Queensland Helen Partridge thinks that Aussies are addicted to Twitter. The QUT professor is looking for Aussie Twitter addicts for a study on how and why the platform is used, other than for work and study.

Partridge started working on the study when she worked as a visiting fellow at Oxford University's Internet Institute last year.

Now, the researcher would like to include the experiences of Aussie addicts in the study. Participants will be interviewed and have their tweets followed by researchers for a week.

According to Prof. Partridge, "In so many ways, Twitter has been incorporated into people's lives. We are looking at everyday use. We want to find out about people's experiences in the Twittersphere, how are they using it, when and why."

Here are the signs that you are a Twitter addict:

  1. You are always connected. You downloaded mobile app of Twitter and you tweet almost every hour.
  2. You know the news through the trending topics. You check what is trending in your local and worldwide to know the latest topics and news.
  3. You constantly use the term or expression "I should tweet that..." When you heard something that sounded nice or something that is interesting, you note it down and tweet it.
  4. You hate someone on Twitter that you have not met. Twitter is a platform where different attitudes collide and some people may clash.
  5. You went berserk when Twitter went down. There are times that Twitter goes down for maintenance and you are mad about it because you cannot tweet your heart away.

Interested Australians who would like to join the study may send an application at k13.johnsonqut.edu.au.

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