<i>To me it still feels like the polite thing to do to follow back if somebody follows me - it is like answering "hello" if somebody says "hello" to you.</i><p>No, what you're doing is more like inviting someone to your house for dinner because they said "hello" to you.<p>At any rate, I've found my life to be drastically simpler than many reports of social-media use, and I attribute it largely to the fact that I only follow/friend/whatever people I know and like.