Social Media Taboo: Twitter Followers vs. Following Ratio

Twitter math is simple. How many people do you follow? How many people follow you? Two numbers, that's it.

Twitter users are complicated. Countless questions, recommendations, and analyses about the so-called "perfect" or "golden" ratio of "followers" vs. "following."

What's my take on it?

There's an interesting Twitter "phenomenon." I think it deserves a story.

For me, it all started with the tweets of God. The content is hilarious and brilliant. There's one number that caught my eye, though. This Twitter user, with 6.2M followers, follows only one person. Who could that be?

Justin Bieber. Who else? It makes perfect sense.

I wonder, how many popular Twitter accounts with the extremely disproportional ratio of followers and following are out there? What about those with ZERO following?

I'm playing with fire here. My teenage daughter is a huge fan of one "disproportionate" Twitter user. Luckily for me, she cares more about Instagram posts than her daddy's stories. Either way, I count on your discretion, my dear readers. You know how they say: snitches get stitches.

Again, it makes sense. If "God" on Twitter follows the one and only Justin, then the goddess follows no one. I stumbled upon this question online: What Your Follow Ratio Says About You? I don't know. I guess these numbers or lack of Twitter following numbers are open to interpretations. "God" has a good sense of humor. Taylor Swift wants to be Switzerland of Twitter (neutral). I don't know. I don't care.

The most popular Twitter account with the highest number of followers belongs to Barack Obama. More than a "healthy ratio" of his account's followers and following, I respect the choice and especially the order of words for his bio. He's first a dad and husband, and then a President and citizen.

What about me, you Critical Drinker, I mean Critical Thinker Noonies Award Nominee? Sorry, it's easy to get confused.

Well, I no longer have a Twitter account. I don't miss it, except for one particular time of the year. It's this time of the year - the Hacker Noon Noonies season. Don't get me wrong. I don't need Twitter to increase my chances of winning an award. I miss sharing my stories and replying to comments.

I guess it's the time for my moment of truth. Fair and square, I became obsessed with this ratio that I couldn't take it anymore. I cared more about the number of my followers than the quality of my tweets. I felt like a Twitter loser. But that's not the only reason I'm staying away from Twitter.

Twitter algorithms and moderators put the fear of God in me. What happened? Well, the road to hell of Twitter suspension is pawed with good intentions and "dangerous" hashtags.

I already wrote about it, so have a quick look to get my point: Twitter Suspends goLance Over "Cut The Fees - Don't Cut Freelancers" Campaign Controversy and Did The Coronavirus Push Twitter Into Auto-Pilot Mode Or Is It Only Now That We're Noticing It?

As I already said, my intentions were good; please don't get me misunderstood. I admit that I should've known better when I look back at it. In my defense, I can say that those were the early days of the pandemic. Who could have known and guessed that COVID-related hashtags would become controversial and potentially harmful? I certainly didn't.

So, here I am, in my self-imposed social media exile. I feel less stressed. I also feel good and proud when Hacker Noon tweets my stories. I saved screenshots of my top stories from the last year's contest. I also took some new ones from the Noonies2021. Talking about Christmas vibes and unforgettable moments.

So, what's the moral of this story? Let me try this one.

Nowadays, you can buy yourself Twitter followers as many as you want. At the same time, we all know there's software that calculates a different kind of ratio - real vs. fake Twitter followers. So, let's care more about words and less about numbers for a change. How hard can it be?