And Australians were no exception this year; more than 2.8 million of us are said to be on the social media platform .

From the frivolous to the tragic and the political, we take a look back at the top Twitter moments of 2014.

#HeyASIO

When new anti-terrorism laws passed the Senate, it sparked a flurry of social media activity as critics flocked to Twitter to parody the nation's top security body. #HeyASIO became a top-trending Twitter hashtag and hundreds of images were uploaded making fun of the new laws, which experts said enabled spies to have the power to monitor the entire Australian internet with just one warrant.

#heyASIO forgot my gmail login, text me? — THE FUTURE (@matt_levinson) September 26, 2014

#Alexfromtarget

A sneaky photo taken by a girl of the photogenic boy she was being served by at a Target checkout quickly led to a social media storm when it was posted on the microblogging website with the caption "YOOOO". After the checkout boy's name was unmasked, #alexfromtarget trended worldwide. Shortly after, he appeared on Ellen Degeneres' show and now he's modelling and preparing to tour the US to meet fans.

#Thankstony and #PutYourIronOut

Asked what his top achievement was as the Minister for Woman, Prime Minister Tony Abbott nominated the carbon tax. Why? Because "women are particularly focused on the household budget and the repeal of the carbon tax means a $550 a year benefit for the average family". The internet subsequently responded with the hashtags #ThanksTony and #PutYourIronsOut, mocking the statement. Jokes about ironing were made prominent in memes about Abbott's latest gaffe thanks to a previous misstep where he said: "What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it's going to go up in price, and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up."

One of the best I've seen #ThanksTony pic.twitter.com/IVicXcO4Jr — Danielle Smelter (@daniellesmelter) December 22, 2014

Tony Abbott declared his biggest achievement as Minister for Women was the the repeal of the climate tax. #thankstony pic.twitter.com/gm5Yg8LyZJ — 1 Million Women (@1millionwomen) December 22, 2014

#Bendgate and #Hairgate

Fresh from the online uproar over whether the shiny new iPhone 6 bends, Apple was hit by a new complaint – that the handset trapped users' hair and beards when they made calls. As Reuters noted at the time, it was difficult to gauge whether there was any real issue, but Twitter users made #hairgate a social media trend much like #bendgate, leading major news outlets to pounce on the story. Social media news website Mashable thoroughly debunked the claims, releasing a video of staff trying to get their hair caught on the phone with no success.

#Putoutyourbats

After the tragic death of cricketer Phillip Hughes, Paul Taylor, an IT worker and former grade cricketer, took a picture of his cricket bat and captioned it #putoutyourbats as a tribute. Several days after he first tweeted the image, there were 197,031 mentions of his "putoutyourbats" hashtag. It was a touching tribute that many warmed to.

#Illridewithyou

As Australians took a stand against anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of the Martin Place siege, Twitter users from around the country offered to ride public transport with Muslims who felt intimidated by anti-Islamic sentiment. The #illridewithyou hashtag amassed more than 120,000 tweets. A young Brisbane woman, Rachael Jacobs, inspired the campaign after posting a moving Facebook status about her encounter with a Muslim woman.

#Gamergate

According to knowyourmeme.com, GamerGate refers to the online backlash against perceived breaches of journalistic integrity on video game news websites that occurred as a result of controversy surrounding independent US game developer Zoe Quinn's alleged affairs with a number of men working in the video game industry, including Kotaku staff writer Nathan Grayson.

It all started on August 16 when Quinn's ex-boyfriend Eron Gjoni published an online expose detailing their relationship, claiming Quinn cheated on him with several men in the gaming industry, including Grayson, in order to gain favourable coverage for her game. In the first week, the hashtag #GamerGate was tweeted more than 244,000 times, according to the Twitter analytics site Topsy.

Things then turned nasty, with harassment and threats targeting women in the video game industry.

#Icebucketchallenge

The Ice Bucket Challenge, which took over Twitter and Facebook earlier this year, entailed donating $US20 to the ALS Association or filming yourself pouring a bucket of icy water on your head, then challenging three more people to do the same.

Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, George W. Bush and Lady Gaga were just a few of the high-profile people who took part.

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a neurodegenerative nerve disease that slowly destroys the brain's ability to move the body. It's also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, after the baseball player whose career it ended.