Yak Shaving

Recently I unfollowed a few people on twitter. It was nothing personal I was just following a few too many people and wanted to make my timeline more “tech” focused. Having removed these people I was surprised to see some of their tweets appearing in my timeline. People who I still followed where retweeting those people who I had stopped following. This got me thinking.

Now I can see the tweets that I might have missed following these people when people I follow deem it interesting. I have created a personal filter using my twitter friends by accident.

More and more I get my news and links from twitter (not so much Facebook). All these links are personally curated by people who I value based on their reputation and interests similar to mine.

The other side to this personal service is that it can be seen as a “filter bubble”. Only receiving links from people in a small group with similar view points and opinions. I am not entirely sure how this makes me feel. There is a pretty good reason I only follow people I agree with. On the other hand it’s nice learn other view points once in a while.

I guess the conclusion is to follow a few people who make you feel slightly uncomfortable.