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I’ve only got so much time a day to read blogs, Twitters, etc.

With blogs I find that I tend to try to keep up with those that post at a frequency at or below what I can handle, irrespective of quality of content. There are lots of blogs that I really enjoy, but which post new material so often that I end up never going to their sites. E.g., BoingBoing or ReadWriteWeb. I tend to always go to new content at blogs I like that have about one new article a day. I have dozens of examples in both these categories.

With blogs it’s no problem if some of the sites you’re subscribed to have tons of content. If you never click through on the indicator that there are 500 unread postings, you never see them.

On Twitter though the dynamic is very different. I follow about 140 people. From time to time during the day - normally when I’m drinking a coffee like I am now, or eating food - I’ll go have a look at Twitter to see what’s up in the wider world.

Unlike with blogs, if someone posts hundreds of Twitter updates you’re going to see them all. You’re perhaps going to see something like the image above (click for larger version). That’s not what I want to see at all. I’m hoping to see a whole bunch of people posting a few things, not screen after screen of one person talking to many people I don’t know or follow. It’s worse than being in a room with someone talking loudly on a mobile phone, hearing just one side of the conversation - this is like being in a room with that same person, but they’re talking to multiple people at once.

So with some reluctance I have recently un-followed Scobelizer, guykawasaki and cameronreilly. I actually like much of their content, but they have much too much of an unbalancing effect on my overall Twitter experience.

Move along.