I suppose you could say it's like the public square in that only 3 of the 10 citizens in that mythical town actually go to the square and debate/decide anything

I suppose you could say it's like the public square in that only 3 of the 10 citizens in that mythical town actually go to the square and debate/decide anything, and the rest just stay home. But I'm not convinced the folks on Twitter truly have that much power because they have those discussions on Twitter (and most would probably have that power whether Twitter exists or not and the discussions on Twitter from those in power seem to be mostly just an extension of their other media presences). It does make some folks more accessible, and their (curated) thoughts more public in some cases. I've spent some time recently to curate who/what I follow on Twitter to be more relevant and less hysterical (it still creeps in tho), and that has actually made me more likely to actually engage there now, as it's often with things I'm actually interested in.