Even though there’s few people I come across with an older account than I have (January 2008), I never quite got the hang of Twitter, and I hardly used it over the last 3 years or so. However, in the run-up to the local municipal elections here I started following a bunch of journos and politicos, and they have interesting things to say. The problem now becomes: how do you manage that firehose? If I keep a tab open, the ‘Twitter (12)’ header forces the inner ADHD kid in me to click it. If I leave for lunch and come back, the ‘Twitter (325)’ header becomes unmanageable. Not to mention what happens overnight.
So what valid strategies do people have? I guess one of the better ones would be separate lists for separate topics/circles, and ignore the ones lists that are basically self-repeating feedback systems, i.e. the news ones, and only keep the ones with for example your social circle completely read.
I manage it by only following what I want to read, which are people who tend to post infrequently but who have something useful to say. I do this myself and post maybe a few times a month, but I have no time for the people who announce to the world that they have brushed their teeth or tied their shoes.
You have stumbled on to the entire reason twitter is popular. It’s peer pressure reading in 144 characters or less. I used to be like you. My best strategy is to close the site and quit the app.
I manage it by only following what I want to read, which are people who tend to post infrequently but who have something useful to say. I do this myself and post maybe a few times a month, but I have no time for the people who announce to the world that they have brushed their teeth or tied their shoes.
Pretty much this. If someone posts non-stop and they clog up my feed? They gone.
It’s not the end of the world if you only read tweets from the last couple hours or so when you are on the throne. I also tend to tweet about my anger towards whatever one of my sports team is shitting themselves at that particular moment which is enjoyable.
