IT'S TOO MUCH

July 12, 2017 2:52 PM

I recently joined the Twitters and could use some tips on how to filter the proverbial firehose of information. There are many interesting accounts, but following more than a couple of them gets out of hand, as in my feed instantly has hundreds of messages. Using Tweetbot on iOS and macOS, but will consider alternatives. Also, I welcome suggestions for worthwhile accounts to follow.
posted by Johnny Wallflower to Computers & Internet (16 answers total)

Step 1: Turn off re-tweets.

That way, you get to hear what the people you are following actually have to say, not just what they're signal boosting from other people. It may mean you miss a few things you might have been interested in, but as you can see, the problem with Twitter is never a lack of interesting things to read.

As far as I can tell, you have to do this individually, account by account. In desktop twitter you do it by going to their profile page, clicking the three dots next to the follow button and choosing the menu option.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:01 PM on July 12, 2017

Sign up for Nuzzel which aggregates frequently shared links across your follow list.
posted by deludingmyself at 3:03 PM on July 12, 2017

First step: turn off re-tweets. You might have to do this manually for everyone.

Second step: lists. I don't follow any famous accounts. Those get put on various lists, so I can curate when I want to read them.

I enjoy using tweetdeck, because I can also pin various columns. Maybe I'm really invested in Roxane Gay's musings on her book tour. Or some adorable pet aggregator to keep up my mood. I can even hide my replies or direct messages to help hammer home that I should be spending less time on twitter.

I also directly send links to instapaper. It makes me feel they're saved, and then it's hit or miss if I'll actually go back and read them. It doesn't weigh on my soul the way 100 tabs does.
posted by politikitty at 3:05 PM on July 12, 2017

I use TweetDeck with lists. I add certain types of accounts to a specific list (i.e. "Politics" or "Sales and deals") and then I create a column in TweetDeck for that list. That way, your main feed may still be a mess of everything, but you're going to have nice columns where you can have tweets only about certain topics with less noise to wade through. One bonus of lists, as well, is that you can add someone to a list without following them, so they will appear on your list feed, but not your main feed. I have about 10 columns I use to keep track of certain lists, certain users, and certain hashtags, plus my main feed, notifications and DMs.

TweetDeck is available as an app for Mac, and it's also available from any web browser at tweetdeck.twitter.com -- but for the Windows users out there who miss the standalone app, I recommend Tweeten as an excellent replacement.

I also agree that Nuzzel is great for seeing what has been widely shared by the people you follow and is popular. It helps me avoid missing anything that trends amongst the accounts I care about.

I don't turn off retweets. I don't see any reason for that. The accounts I follow only retweet stuff that is relevant to the stuff they normally tweet themselves. If I follow someone who retweets a lot of random crap, I either unfollow, or if that'd be awkward, I mute them. That said, in TweetDeck, you can turn off showing retweets for entire columns, including your main feed.
posted by AppleTurnover at 3:12 PM on July 12, 2017

Oh! That reminds me of another self-care thing. I'm a pretty avid user of the mute function. Either temporarily mute users, or mute keywords.
posted by politikitty at 3:21 PM on July 12, 2017

I've been an avid Twitter user for over ten years and I follow around 2000 people. My primary piece of advice is don't stress about seeing everything. Anything that is truly important, you will see again or somewhere else. But trying to keep 100% caught up on Twitter is a recipe for pain. If there's anyone who you REALLY want to make sure you see everything from, you can turn on mobile notifications for them (or maybe put them in a list, but lists seem to be someting that Twitter isn't really encouraging any more, so I'd worry that they'll remove the functionality completely at some point).
posted by primethyme at 4:02 PM on July 12, 2017

Give up on the idea that you will be a twitter feed completist. It's hard, I know, but Twitter is totally ephemeral. Look at it when you have time to look at it, feel free to scroll back a little bit if you want, but set a mental time limit for how long you'll do that.

You can put accounts on a list without following them. Great for news sources or famous people or maybe even people who all tweet about a certain topic that you only care about once a week when that TV show is on, or whatever. That way their tweets are there at a touch of a button but not cluttering up your main feed.

Follow slowly and unfollow quickly. Maybe create a "trial period" list for new accounts and give them a go that way before you decide to follow someone. And if someone tweets too much or the content annoys you, unfollow.
posted by misskaz at 4:17 PM on July 12, 2017

Here's what I do with Tweetbot. I've created private lists of users, stuff like friends from IRL, high frequency strangers, journalists, local news. I read my feed by prioritized lists: friends, then local news or whatever. I use the mute features within Tweetbot all the time.

(For example if you feel you shouldn't unfollow someone you know IRL, but can't stand their Twitter, mute them forever, or for a month! Tweetbot automates it for you! Like a Twitter person but they're on a rant and you don't care? Mute them for a day!)

Any topic you don't want to hear about anymore? Mute it! For example, I've now read 15 tweets about nothingburger or that glowing orb and I'm no longer amused? Mute the keyword "orb" for a month or a week and watch your feed shrink. Tweetbot removes the other tweets you haven't read yet that meet the mute criteria.
posted by purple_bird at 4:26 PM on July 12, 2017

I use TweetDeck with lists.

Yes. To make this work you have to sort of commit to using the desktop sometimes (or iPad, it's hard on a phone) but it's great. My lists are

- @s and RTs of mine
- a short list of literally 19 people I want to read every tweet by
- a list of not-people (institutions etc)
- a list of Vermonters/people near me
- my DMs
- everyone (I look at this like someone people listen to the radio, I don't try to keep up, if it's someone I want to keep up with I put them on the list). This is not technically a list but it's a "panel" in tweetdeck.

When there is an event I am really interested in, I might add a column to follow the tag. There's a #critlib tag I like and #filmdis (people talking about disability in film). If you don't feel like you have a real sense of lists, check out lists of other people. You can follow other people's lists! Here's my set, mostly ones I made.

One thing that is weird is that different interfaces are better for different things. I find the twitter.com website (or app) the best for reading ongoing notifications; Tweetdeck is better for seeing RTs but it's crap for following "threads" which seem more and more popular lately.
posted by jessamyn at 5:30 PM on July 12, 2017

You can use lists in Tweetbot, and the desktop version will do multiple columns like how people use Tweetdeck. I really only turn off retweets on accounts where they get out of hand, but I also only follow about 300 active accounts on most days (I assume at least a hundred, and maybe a couple hundred, of the people I follow won't be tweeting again any time soon, if ever).

Also, follow @darth for dog pictures.
posted by fedward at 6:40 PM on July 12, 2017

Following Twitter accounts that random people on the internet suggest is a sure fire way to get overwhelmed. It is your account, follow the things you're interested in. And know that the point, like Facebook, is not necessarily that you read everything that is on your feed.
posted by ryanbryan at 9:05 PM on July 12, 2017

Embrace the chaos. You don't have to digest it all. I don't let Twitter sit in the corner of my screen, because it would drive me mad. Rather, I dip in occasionally, and these days I also rely on the Twitter algorithms to point out interesting content to me (this doesn't happen on Tweetdeck, but does on the main site or in smartphone apps).

It can take a while to find your twitter vibe. Don't let FOMO control how you use it.
posted by 0bvious at 5:56 AM on July 13, 2017

I use lists and a very narrowly defined main feed. I follow 72 accounts on my main feed, and that's manageable. Any account that posts too much get tossed. The two lists I use I definitely don't read everything.
posted by cnc at 9:28 AM on July 13, 2017

Plenty of good advice here already; I'd just add that you should have absolutely no compunction about muting and/or unfollowing accounts that overpost and take up too much space, get retweeted into your timeline constantly despite not being funny or informative, just happen to stress you out or annoy you for whatever reason or no reason at all, et cetera. Twitter is a deeply broken service in a lot of ways, and you pretty well have to do a bunch of filtering using the few arcane tools available to retain your sanity; don't hesitate to do so out of some sense of polite etiquette.
posted by RogerB at 10:38 AM on July 13, 2017

Thanks for all great tips, guys. The firehose is more manageable now.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:06 PM on July 17, 2017

Just saw this: The Case Against Retweets, and How to disable all retweets.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:10 AM on March 8, 2018