I know little about twitter although I have had an account for a few years.

I somehow have it set up so that I have to open the Twitter app to see what is being tweeted. Not bothered by tweets or tweet sounds. Every once in awhile there will be something in my email box from Twitter telling me to check a tweet out, I just delete the email, usually without opening it.

Yes, you can just create a Twitter account from your computer. There's a phone app for it that the majority of users use, but you don't have to involve your phone.

Once you follow, yes, "tweets" will seemingly come willy-nilly based on when your followers send their tweets. Once you log into your account, you'll see a list of the tweets that have been posted since the last time you were logged in (like Facebook), and you can scroll down and read them.

You can control when you access the tweets simply by not logging in on your computer. If you choose to have the phone app, you control that, too--just don't open the app until you want to read the latest tweets.

Saying that, you don't have to have a Twitter account in order to view the Twitter feeds of most users, including the political ones that have been discussed here. For example, here's a link to the Alt Park Service Twitter page... you can just browse for it and find it on the Internet.

ETA to add link: https://twitter.com/altnatparkser

Here's a link to Trump's Twitter feed, if you want to take a look without becoming an official follower.

That he is!

I see he's saying he cancelled the meeting with Mexico. NOT!

Thank you all. That answered all my questions. I don't know that I want to read any tweets, just follow certain people so their #'s go up. Oh, that's numbers not hashtags...sigh. I guess I've had trouble reading tweets (on the couple rare occasions I've wanted to) without having an account, but maybe I'm mistaken. Maybe there are settings so only people who "follow" can see your tweets? Probably more than I need to know.

Someday, I'll ask about Instagram, but it will probably only around the time it becomes obsolete. :-)

Lisa, I feel bad not liking your post, but I just can't bring myself to "like" a link to trump's feed. But thanks for posting it.

A celeb I follow on IG posted this. Where's a superhero when we need one?

That's why I'm not so big on tweets. How useful will it be for me in life? I'm more interested in reading blogs, and even with those I rarely get or take the time. One friend of mine says you can tweak it (doncha love the idea of tweaking your tweets) so that it becomes like your own personal news feed. I've done that with my blogs but I guess I don't care to be that "up to the moment" on all that is going on in the world.

Olychick, if you don't especially care about reading the tweets of those you want to support, your 1 addition to their Followers number won't make a great deal of difference, most public personalities who tweet have thousands of followers.

Mostly I follow reporters who are tweeting on current trials I'm interested in, once the trial is over I usually 'unfollow' them as I don't need scads of tweets on my page when I'm trying to follow particular cases. Actually there's only one tweeter I'll never unfollow - Stephen King. :)

I use twitter a lot for my work. I can follow scientists,academics, nonprofits, get news of grant opportunities, sports, etc. I use both computer an mobile. I have hashtags for my classes to follow. So, I can definitely put it to good use.

LOL, just at a national medical conference that had a brief session, taught by "young kid" docs, on how to use Twitter. They also had a booth and helped individuals set up an account and put the app on smartphone.

Was discussed many med students and residents communicate via Twitter, so to stay connected you may want to read what they are saying.

I don't have a twitter account, but I use my computer to keep up with the tweets of a few people. I checked out the POTUS twitter account. I don't think I need to follow it, as it is reported on pretty well!

Oh, but ghostlyvision, what if my ONE "follow" to some other person was the one that moved trump's standing down a notch? ;-)

I opened a twitter acct. back when it began, so if I were to tweet, would anyone see it?

I've just started using Twitter, and I'm still figuring it out. I have no followers, but I've been "liked" and re-tweeted, so someone is seeing them. I can send out my frustrations there instead of posting on facebook. I've been using it to contact representatives instead of emails and phone calls. I also like to tweet our President daily to remind him that he lost the popular vote and his crowds and his hands are very small. I get some sick satifaction out of this.

This is great, I don't have a twitter account or a clue! But, now learning that you can see twitter feeds without having an account or signing up, I've been totally curious to see the "epic twitter battle" between the zoos posting cute photos over the past two days... its at #cuteanimaltweetoff

Oakley, if you have followers, they will receive your tweets on their "feed." If your account is public, anyone can see your tweets by either accessing your page or by conducting a search for key words in your tweet (for example, if you tweet about vegetarianism, and your account is public and someone does a search for "vegetarianism" in Twitter, your tweet may show up for them).

Kitchenwitch111, if you have no followers, but others are liking or re-tweeting your tweets, then your tweets are coming up in searches. And if you're angrily tweeting to or about the president, I would be leery of keeping your account public or having ANY identifying information in it. Trump most likely won't see your tweets, but some of his followers are vicious, mean trolls. Honestly--be careful. Here are a few tips... There are also numerous stories about how his trolls have made the lives of those who oppose him pure he!!.

Here is some additional information from Twitter itself. Twitter FAQs

ETA, Kitchenwitch111, I didn't mean to preach above but I've read so many stories about how his trolls react. They are crazy. Just be careful.

Bumping this because my post didn't initially appear because I used a "bad" word." But want to be sure Kitchenwitch111 reads it. It can get ugly fast in Twitterland.

Be sure to follow @maturetrumptwts Great. Honestly I still don't understand the difference between @ and #.

Isn't @ the prefix for a Twitter handle and # is a hashtag for searching purposes?

I joined to also just support the alt government websites, but the most interesting is the @roguepotusStaff. Who knows whether these alt sites are true, but this one did state that the Mexican president was cancelling the meeting before it was announced, and that T was going to make it look like it was his idea. It also tweeted that Priece was trying to keep T from ordering the IRS to terminate his audit.

Speaking of tweets -

Madeleine Albright
Verified account

‏@madeleine

I was raised Catholic, became Episcopalian & found out later my family was Jewish. I stand ready to register as Muslim in #solidarity.

https://twitter.com/madeleine?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Why is it that Obama had to give up his Blackberry for security reasons, but Trump's fat little fingers are constantly on Twitter?

Yes, Linelle. That's the general idea. In terms of @ and #...

@ is used in front of Twitter (or Instagram) usernames in your posts when you want the person to be alerted that you posted a message with their specific name.

# is used when you want your Twitter (or Instagram) post to come up in a search.

So... if you follow someone who's Twitter name is veganrules, and you post a tweet about enjoying one of their recipes, you would tweet something like:

What a great weeknight recipe from @veganrules! Thank you for the inspiration!

This tweet would go to veganrules, who would have the option of retweeting or replying to it for its accolades. And your other followers could click on the "@veganrules" link in your tweet and see veganrules' Twitter home page (if it's public).

If you take the same tweet above and use a hashtag, it might look like this:

What a great weeknight recipe from @veganrules! Thank you for the inspiration! #veganrecipes #vegandiet #veganinspiration

Then, your tweet would accomplish everything above with the "@" and also would show up if anyone does a general search for "veganrecipes" "vegandiet" or "veganinspiration"

The @ will bring your followers to the direct source. The hashtag will be part of any sort of general search using those search words.

Here's more to explain (and these apply to Instagram, too):

@ in Twitter

Hashtags

Thanks for all your info, Lisa!

Hashtags are good to follow sporting events like #GBvsATL in NFL games. Or I use them #walking #walkability. But I will @ if I want someone to look at that tweet or maybe retweet it.

BTW, if you search on Twitter for "fascist" "racist" or "a**hole" guess who's account comes up?

Omigosh, thank you all for the info...just when it felt like it may be doable, the # vs @ info sent me into a tailspin of confusion. I guess I just don't want it badly enough to try to figure it out.

Terriks: "Trump's fat little fingers" - don't you mean short little fingers?