We’ve been fans of the texting service Twitter since back before it was the talk of the Valley (a statement which recalls the line my friends and I used to toss around back in the day: “Oh, right, you liked REM before they were popular). But it’s true, we knew Twitter’s simple mission—answering the question: What are you doing?—would prove an addictive, fun way to communicate. That’s why last November we teamed up with Twitter to deliver anyone with a cell phone our favorite six-word memoir of the day.

Since then, Twitter’s become a texting sensation that’s sweeping the nation. What started as a way to send quick updates about your mood or coordinates to friends who need them ASAP (e.g., “Heading to the main stage to hear Jill Scott at Jazzfest. Can someone bring some water?”), has been adapted for news delivery, micro blogging, ego-stroking, and indeed storytelling. No surprise then that all sorts of unoffical Twitter sites have popped up. This person is even reading a book to Twitter, line by line. I’m both inspired and spooked by that.

My favorite Twitter diversion is TwitterEarth. Click on any part of the world map and up pops a recent Twitter post from someone in that spot on the globe (some call the Twitter posts a “tweet”).

And if the world is not enough, check out Jim Murphy’s mind-blowing list of Twitter mashups, stats, and applications on Tech Weekly.

If you join Twitter, make SMITHmag a friend and you’ll get not dozens, not hundreds, not thousands, but in fact just a few well-chosen updates a week about what we’re doing. And that’s finding the best personal stories and cool tools to tell those stories, here on SMITH and elsewhere.

Bonus: The definitive, 12-minute guide to Twitter. Like you have that kind of time…