This I Know For Sure...

I have no idea what I'm doing with Twitter.  I finally stopped dragging my feet and opened an account.  (Is that even the right term?  I'm not sure about that either.)  I'm following 16 people and have 8 followers.  I know those are pathetic numbers but I haven't put it out that I'm now on Twitter. Since I had to choose 10 people to follow to set up the account, I've really only added 6 new people and those are mainly fellow writers I don't know who somehow found me to follow and I followed them back.

When I go into my Twitter account, there is the tweet list -- tons and tons of tweets and I'm only following 16 people! Okay some of the tweets are from people I don't follow but have been retweeted by those I do.  How do those people who follow hundreds or more people keep up with it all?

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to keep up with these, reading and sometimes, retweeting items.  I received a copy of Twitter For Dummies for Christmas and am still at a loss.

Any suggestions for a complete Twitter newbie?  I'd love to hear them.