It seems like we have a hard time forgetting about the ``I'' in Twitter.

That was the conclusion by two Rutgers professors who studied the content of 3,000 tweets sent by 350 Twitter users.

The communication and information professors, Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase, found that there tend to be two types of Twitter folks. The majority, or 80 percent, were what they called ``meformers'' -- Twitter users who sent out messages that revolved around themselves, updating others about their activities or sharing thoughts and feelings.

The other 20 percent are ``informers'' -- people who were actually sharing information. Not surprisingly, the informers tended to have larger social networks and be more interactive.

Because they're academics, Naaman and Boase came up with a technical description for not just Twitter, but all the short, instant ways we communicate these days, be it through a Facebook status update or other ways we end up in people's Newsfeeds: They called it social awareness streams.

Naaman told me he thinks people talk about themselves simply because it's the easiest thing to do. He also thinks that as people get more used to these streams, like we had to do with e-mail, or even the telephone, usage will adapt. (He even realizes that his Twitter account was more meformer than informer, so he set up a new account, @Informor.)

Twitter's picked up on this, too: Last week, the question ``What are you doing?'' was changed to ``What's happening?'' -- an evolution perhaps in how they see people using the site.

Because Naaman and Boase think social awareness streams are becoming an important part of the way some people communicate, both through public and personal relationships, they don't come down that hard on the meformers.

``Although the meformers' self focus might be characterized by some as self-indulgent, these messages may play an important role in helping others maintain relationships,'' they wrote in their study.

I spend a lot of time wading through social awareness streams, and on some days, I think I'm drowning in self-indulgence.

And I know I've been guilty of this myself, at times. But if we are really about wanting to develop relationships on social networking sites, we should remember to be more interactive.

Poked is a column about netiquette, social media and the business world written by Niala Boodhoo and Bridget Carey. Have a vexing question or need some advice? E-mail us at Poked@MiamiHerald.com, or visit our blog at http://miamiherald.typepad.com/poked.