twittiquette?

man, twitter. it's been a whirlwind of a week.

i fell in love with you hard, and then over the weekend i was like "whoa, maybe i'm not that into you." and now i'm back on the fence.

here's the thing, i get why people hate the idea of twitter. i agree on all points. i don't think it's healthy for our generation who already spend too much time connected on the internet rather than connecting with real people. especially if you're sending out status updates like "eating lunch." or "going to the mall."

however, most of my real-life friends and new twitter friends are people who are witty, insightful, and use twitter as a platform to make silly observations about their day that would otherwise float out of your head. i'm interested in that. i also think it's a great way to communicate about things going on in this small city of ours. i like being more tapped-in locally to events and other things going on.

that said, as more and more people have started to "follow" me, i've been feeling weird about the proper etiquette. do i have to follow someone who follows me? is that rude not to?

right now i've got some basic following rules that i've established. if you follow me, i'll follow you back if:

1) i know you in real-life
2) i know you in e-life (i.e. blogs i read, people who comment regularly here, etc.)
3) i don't know you, but you seem interesting and exciting
4) i don't know you, but you seem interesting and exciting, and you don't update 35 times a day.

for the most part though, i'm not really trying to add a bunch of people i don't know. one of the reasons i hate facebook is that i don't have the time to go scrolling through everyone i know in the world's status updates.

so far, it's working out. if i'm being a twitter a-hole, please don't hesitate to inform me.

and for the love of god, please please tell me if i'm one of those people that twitters too much. it's new and exciting and i'm trying to keep it under control. i definitely don't want to be "that guy".