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Of course, the pundits yawned, President Obama’s not-state-of-the-union-state-of-the-union-address last week was excellent. But CNN, FOX and MSNBC were all atwitter about the real news of the night: senators and congressmen twittering their way through the speech on their Blackberries. Even the notoriously uncool Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) joined in. (Though maybe he should stop if he’s going to keep using lame phrases like “vote-a-rama” or abuse the exclamation point by tweeting “Happy Birthday Joe Lieberman!!”)

Despite all the hoopla, it wouldn’t surprise me if many students hadn’t even visited twitter.com. So for you oblivious folks, Twitter is now considered one of the major social networking sites, behind only the internet giants Facebook and Myspace. The website explains that “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” The one rule is that this question must be answered in 140 characters or less.

As a result, Twitter is probably the apogee of what I would describe as America’s burgeoning culture of self-importance. Few things are more presumptuous than assuming that someone would be interested in reading a detailed account of your daily activities. (Except, maybe, thinking that people are interested in seeing hundreds of your pictures on Myspace and that they care to read the witticisms shared on your Facebook status.)

So, I admit, Twitter may sound like a ridiculous idea. Still, it gets an estimated 55 million hits per month. But based on my informal survey of students, few of those people come from zip code 08544.

This is an odd and completely unique phenomenon: a new, popular technology that young people seem to be shy to embrace.

As a result, Twitter may very well symbolize a milestone in our lives. For as long as I can remember, a new technology could only gain traction by garnering street cred among, well, kids. People 22 and under were the only ones comfortable enough with computers to be willing to explore new technology and embrace it. But, with Twitter, the phenomenon is reversed.

Its fame grew as it attracted users older than 25 (and, apparently, as old as 72). Just think about how crazy this is. For years, our parents would sheepishly ask us, “What is this Facebook thing?” Now, we might have to ask our parents to explain Twitter to us.

But still, the mystery remains as to why college-age students are so resistant to Twitter. If it so popular, there must be something to it.

After Twittergate — the scandal of our elected representatives tweeting their way through President Obama’s speech — there were a number of articles that suggested that Twitter had somehow “jumped the shark.” In short, the argument is that because someone as uncool as McCain is twittering, now no self-respecting college kid will give the site a try. Maybe there is something to that. But, on the other hand, many elected representatives have Facebook profiles and students still Facebook-stalk the night away. So this alone cannot be the explanation.

In an effort to find a better answer, I — under the nom de plume abradlow005 — timidly tweeted, “I am still unsure why everyone loves twitter. Discuss.” Being that this was my second tweet ever, I was not sure what to expect. One Princetonian wrote, “Twitter is destroying American society. More to come.” Another said, “I think rather than asking me why college kids should twitter, you should read my tweets and judge for yourself.” So I did. I think I finally solved the mystery.

Tweets are, to the eye of this novice, different in nature from Facebook status updates. I have not yet seen a cussword on Twitter, and most of the updates are of a promotional nature. For example, one fellow twitterer only posts comments that tell others about an impressive activity he has completed or an article he has written. The structure is also different. While on Facebook people are “friends,” on Twitter people are “followers.” This language denotes a very different relationship, one in which a follower is watching you and somehow looking to judge you in a way that a “friend” wouldn’t. In essence, Facebook is your personal life and Twitter is your resume. And, even though many Princeton students are busy looking for Wall Street jobs or White House internships, they aren’t ready to fully engage with the corporate world just yet. While many here may aspire to be suits, thankfully, they aren’t there yet.

So, I say, leave the Twitter to the professionals. Senator McCain, you didn’t win the presidency. The least I can do for you is let you remain the Tweet-master.