Call social networks overhyped, or call them part of the giant buzzword bubble that is Web 2.0; I think they have their uses, and I also can’t imagine them going away, short of being replaced by a superior concept. So, instead of waiting for this bubble to burst, let’s separate cream from crop.

Arguably, relationships are the core aspect of your personal network. Facebook calls them “friends”, as do MySpace and similar sites. LinkedIn, in an attempt to come off as more professional, calls them “connections”. And Twitter? The URL says “friends”, but the concept is largely presented as “following” someone.

And “following” is indeed what it is: when they shower, leave for a trip or have thoughts while doing somestufforother. From the mundane to the intriguing, plenty of information is constantly pushed to the site, then pulled by clients and distributed to many a user.

Some “tweets” are amusing, including the occasional nerd humor; others provide in-depth insight. E.g., despite the common misperception that Apple employees are barred from publicly participating on the Internet¹, people like Deric Horn or Bill Bumgarner have happily done exactly that².

But our hours per day are limited. We could just follow everyone, thus minimizing the risk of missing out on something worthwhile, but would that be practical? Bizarrely enough, some seem to think so. Others pride themselves on a seemingly absurd number of followees, such as nearly twenty-five hundred, or close to seven times the monkeysphere. Apparently in response to me having BarackObama, “he” (presumably a staff worker or bot of his) added me back — but so did “BeatMcCain” as well as, uh, “RudyGiuliani32″. I’m hardly alone in my bewilderment of this apparent desire to follow such complete strangers in person as well as personality. Says Matt Gemmell:³

Why do such random people follow my tweets? “Married mom of 3 toddlers who’s loving real estate”, welcome to… Cocoa development?

I still pile on to my list of “friends”, “connections” and “followees”. But I also occasionally carefully pull some out from the bottom. Instead of the entire stack falling apart, it actually ends up more stable.

This may seem too much of a business approach, but I find that if I don’t build my network carefully, choosing whom to include as well as whom not to include, the concept doesn’t benefit me. Following fifty people on Twitter, give or take a few, works for me.

When people add me on top of hundreds of others, are they really interested in me? Inspired by me? Do they learn from me? Uli Kusterer is, of course, right:

Well, if they don’t have anything better to do, let them

…but my puzzlement remains.

1. As found, for example, in this article’s assertion of “Forget corporate blogs — Apple doesn’t seem to like anyone blogging about the company.” (which, unsurprisingly, isn’t backed up at all by any references). ↩
2. Consider Deric’s enthusiastic fielding of questions after the iPhone SDK press event, such as here. ↩
3. Update: turns out she’s a Mac user. ↩