I received a Twitter direct message earlier today from someone who is frequently a teacher of mine.  This individual was curious about why my Twitter following/follower ratio was something like four to one.  My answer, which was also a direct message, was: #

The short answer is because I don’t find value in following every person that follows me. It’s a bit more complicated than that, though. #

There’s an awful lot of baggage tied up in followers and friends and whatnot online, but there doesn’t need to be.  One reason I’ve always liked Twitter is that I find that it’s incredibly open.  Through an @ message, anyone can get the attention of anyone else who uses the service (so long as the person you want to get a hold of  has their @messages settings in Twitter open to anybody.) #

But the way I screen Twitter followers and make decisions about who to follow is pretty simple:  If I find the person or the content helpful to me in my work or engaging in some other way (funny, wise, curiosity-inducing, teaching, etc.), I follow.  If I don’t, I don’t. #

It’s not personal.  Except when it is.  By that, I mean that there are far more people in the world than I can learn from at any one time.  If I find a stream useful, I keep it around.  If I don’t find it useful, I let it go.  If the person or stream is more distraction than help, I let it/them go, too.  I don’t have a magic number of people or a ratio, but about four to one seems to be consistent – I get the question of “Why are you not following as many people as follow you?” enough that I’ve noticed the trend. #

I don’t follow all the folks that follow me for a bunch of reasons.  Some folks aren’t teaching me anything.  Others are sharing resources I’m finding from other sources.  For the most part, I don’t block folks whom I don’t like or find “offensive” that follow me. #

I expect no reciprocity in my reading and/or following habits.  I continually think others who expect such are misunderstanding the opportunities herein, or are using social media for drastically different purposes than I, which is fine, except when they expect me to follow their “rules.”  I try to approach most of these spaces as places in which I can be selflessly selfish. #

There’s very little new here.  Friendships and other relationships in “real life” are often one-way.  We get a little hinky sometimes when we see these relationships documented, though.  No need. #