Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the signal gets drowned out by the noise, that's your fault as a user. You either follow too many people or follow the wrong people. Twitter essentially acts as a whitelist-based messaging platform. Note the word "whitelist"
as programmers, we always know it is "the users fault." but as users, we expect a service to have value and "just work." i do specifically mention getting meaningful information from following users you know. but how do you find those users? enhanced filtering keyed on multiple vectors will become the only useful mechanism for consuming information from not only those you dont follow but also from those you do. as it…
There will always be people who get a kick out of following/friending celebrities, and those who will use twitter for more personal communication or other uses. It doesn't make either behavior right or wrong or more rewarding or less rewarding. But the people who claim that twitter sucks because the interaction isn't personal (or something along those lines) are doing it wrong. They want something specific out of a service but have (possibly unknowingly) set it up to do the complete opposite.