Sometimes, 140 characters is not enough

I have come to Twitter late.

And... but, I am loving it.

Though I am also coming to dread it.

For all the great tweets, comments and links, this morning's scroll was 10 pages... and 2hrs! Just checking, reading and replying. Another hour at least topping up to now through the day.

Maybe it is because I am not using it right, but then few of those I appreciate do either.

My understanding is that it was/is designed to be social and personal, but I really cannot be too bothered with the 'good mornings' and whether so and so likes their mate's new shoes (almost put dress, which might have riled the sexist community, who in turn could be accused of an 'ism' by the transgendered one).

Frankly I wish I could delete these, that I deem major clutter, even as the time waste is moot.

But I love, and try to contribute to the shares. The occasional considered ponder, but mainly awesome links. And, in following those, finding other great tweeters to follow.

But it is getting out of control. I have yet to figure out the FF's (for Follow Fridays) when along come various Mention Mondays and Who-hoo Wednesdays, and of course RT's (Re-tweets). I appreciate being a beneficiary, and have tried to respond in kind, but one guy I follow did his whole follow list in batches, and filled a whole page of twitter up. Who is going to read that? Or him, much more, if he keeps it up.

And the whole admin side is becoming an obsession. I am so worried about missing one, or losing the archive (when I came back after 2 weeks hols, the thought of not going back to see all I missed was too horrible to contemplate, but not doing so caused real angst. Especially when, even though I probably would never try to re-read, I dread the archive falling off the back end. My Mac has a pretty nifty search capability now where I can access 'internal' stored references quickly).

I am sure there are training tips and even bolt-ons to assist, but who has the time to search and learn?

There's also the small matter of relevance. I use JunkkMale, currently, for everything.

Now that is great if a followee pops back and sees a post on green if that is their bag, but what about my interests in music, design, invention or the ad world? I think I am going to have to split and run complements. But that suggests a danger of Xx2hrs each morning... and counting as I add more.

But even if you focus, just how does a guy with 20k+ followers, especially one who follows back in kind, engage? They have to be purely on transmit, which means they are possibly missing so much new and useful. But, practically, they are I guess prioritising as best they can.

Currently I check each follow to see what they are up to before following back. I want to read their stuff, and get back when it's good. Or share.

It is all so exciting, but overwhelming. Better than being boring and underwhelming, I guess.