If youre still looking for a costume idea and youre 36, youre inluck. Show up tweeting from your mobile device and instantly be: the driving force behind Twitter's success. Although recent studies have shown that younger folks are warming up to Twitter, its the age 35 to 44 year old demographic in 2008 that catapulted the micro-blogging service into mainstream consciousness.

You cant watch TV, read your RSS feed or even have a conversationwithout tweet-infiltration. Its everywhere. DMs, @s, RTs, hashtagsand now listing. The subculture that comes along with being one of manytweoples has even penetrated advertising and packaging. This Twitterexplosion and Twittification of language really got me thinking: whythe 35 to 44 demographic? Im sure Im not alone in this question. Soheres an idea:

#CommandLineInterface

The age 35 to 44 demographic might remember a little thingcalled DOS. Yes, the Disk Operating System. DOS operated on a CommandLine Interface, on which youd enter a command, combined withcharacters like these: $, %, #, :, > and @ . A few of these samecharacters form the framework of the Twitterverse. Yes, the hashtag.Not to mention the @. Some CLI users, depending on the operatingsystem, could type in the @ character to specify users. Soundfamiliar? Its pretty simple to see the connection: The age 35 to 44demographic might have a leg up navigating Twitter due to previous CLIusage. If this same demographic began using CLI in their first computerinteractions, its not so crazy to think that adopting Twitter seemedmore naturalmore intuitive.

Somemight deem this hypothesis misleading because of Twitter's simplicityand ease of use, regardless of CLI experience, but place yourself in anoutsider's shoes. Navigating Twitter would be confusing with the manyfunctional symbols and site-specific verbiage. Getting oriented takestime. Having CLI experience may have made it a little easier for aspecific demographic to become acclimated.

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