Sometimes that level of ruthless curation is the only option. I must say, I'm a bit envious of your Twitter set up — a locked account following a handful of people sounds so blissful and calm!

I have a professional Twitter account, but I made the decision when I set it up that a) I would keep a rigid dividing line between my personal and professional online lives and b) I would only use that professional account for broadcast purposes (so posting links/announcements was fine, using the account to have conversations or retweet posts from whatever fraught debate was happening in the profession was not going to happen). So far, I'm not regretting that decision in the slightest.