Notably missing from the list: political figures, revolutions, breaking-news events. While most individual Twitter accounts feature a mix of entertainment, news, and interpersonal interaction, when you average out the sea of tweets, we find gray platitudes from famous people.
OK, here we go, from 12 to 1, ranging from roughly 45 thousand retweets up to 88 thousand.
12. A imitation account of the singer Frank Ocean, 45k retweets: "3 guys in Colorado died protecting their girlfriends. i don't want to hear any girls saying that 'All guys are the same.' "
11. Astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, 46k retweets: "Cutting PBS support (0.012% of budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard drive"
10. One Direction bandmember Liam Payne, 49k retweets: " ': Koutaliaphobia is the fear of spoons. Liam Payne from One Direction says he's scared of spoons.' i now know the name for it"
9. Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, 51k retweets: "Thanks for everything boss." (With a photo of Alex Ferguson, his coach at Manchester United.)
8. Rapper Drake, 53k retweets: "You never worry about the last laugh if you've been laughing the whole time."
7. Singer Ariana Grande, 53k retweets: "Retweet for a follow & I'll follow as many as I can today. If I don't get to you now I'm sure I will eventually, I'm always doing these. :)"
6. Online storage company Dropbox, 56k retweets: "A guide on how to get more free space with Dropbox!http://t.co/nIjwo0nM Retweet for a chance to get +100GB!"
5. A parody account of the photo sharing service Instagram, 56k retweets: "Right now you have 3 fingers behind your phone, your pinky tucked under for support, and you're scrolling with your thumb."
4. One Direction bandmember Louis Tomlinson, 60k retweets: "Uh oh . The Wanted's Tom Parker: My failed X Factor audition shattered me | http://metro.co.uk/2011/07/04/the-wanteds-tom-parker-my-failed-x-factor-audition-shattered-me-64958/ … via "
3. Justin Bieber, 62k retweets: "every girl out there should respect themselves. #real"
2. Actor Ben Savage, 68k retweets: "I'm going to be a father! Well, on TV at least. The 'Boy Meets World' sequel is officially happening!"
1. Viral photo account Earth Pics, 88k retweets: "Retweet if you want to be part of our social experiment!" BUT! It featured a photograph that was just written text saying, "If you retweet this before September 1st, we will write your @username down on a piece of paper. They will get thrown of [sic] the Eiffel Tower, they will also get left in the London Underground, and some taped in public bathrooms all over the world. Hopefully someone will find your URL and send you a message telling you where they found it! Retweet if you want to be part of this social experiment!"
As a sophisticated information consumer, this list might not exactly give you hope for the information-sharing potential of social media.