I just logged into Facebook and realized that Facebook is a lot like my work e-mail and Twitter: 95% of the stuff that shows up there is noise that doesn’t concern me at all. Some girl who worked on a group project with me freshman year updated her photo album and then a total stranger that I foolishly accepted as a friend posts some introspective ramblings. And then I turn to Twitter, where very few posts interest me at all. Part of the problem is that I often start following strangers who post something interesting, only to realize that them being interesting was a rare occasion.
I’ve been toying for a while with purging the names I don’t recognize from Facebook and leaving Twitter. But I think, for now, I’ll stick with status quo: checking Facebook once every couple weeks and looking at Twitter every few days.
Use TweetDeck for Twitter. There is a group for replies to you and direct messages. You want those. Also set up groups for subsets of who you follow. I have one for people I really don’t want to miss, one for education and one for everyone else. I read through those groups in that order depending on the time I have available.
Facebook I visit rarely anymore. And I’m thinking of quietly unfriending some people I don’t really know. But don’t tell anyone.