Yesterday, we were talking about twitter at the office, and a few people lamented that all of a sudden, it seems like "reading twitter is work".  And we all knew what they meant.  While our friends are all certainly different, the makeup is somewhat the same.  We have all chosen to follow those who are tweeting useful links about things going on in software development, the business community, etc.  And it's like a firehose of articles to read, ideas to ponder, etc.  Like RSS on steroids.  And yes, it does elicit that feeling of, "OMG, I'm overwhelmed at how much I don't know".

Tools, such as groups in tweetdeck, can help you avoid that feeling of dread of opening up twitter, segmenting your friends into different groups so that you can focus attention on social aspects of twitter (meeting up with friends, etc.) and business use based on your mood.