I've been using Twitter for a decade. I don't follow anyone for their popularity -- I follow people whose work or insights I admire. I've used Twitter to follow

I've been using Twitter for a decade. I don't follow anyone for their popularity -- I follow people whose work or insights I admire. I've used Twitter to follow more than a few people whose opinions I find controversial in order to understand their thinking. I've actually changed some of my own opinions based on tweets. The tweets expose me to new ideas or perspectives, and lead to research, reading, and in-depth discussion with people. This is valuable to me! In my current life, getting together with people and being exposed to this kind of intellectual stimulation is not always easy. Twitter allows an asynchronous, distributed way of having this kind of discussion. I have met a few people IRL from Twitter, including authors, activists, and "makers" I admire. I don't know how peope build a following, but that's not really my goal. I post on a variety of subjects: technical, artistic, political, and lots of random photographs from my walks. I have very few followers (although I am amazed and impressed by some of the people who follow me).