I created a Twitter account years ago just to get a free T-shirt. Had to show proof I Tweeted something about the festival I was at using certain hashtags.

I followed a few celebrities and then never logged in or used it for years.

Fast forward to 2019 or 2020 (honestly can't remember at this point, but I know it was before Trump's account got deleted, because I deleted mine soon after that), and I logged in to participate in a debate of some kind.

One of my responses completely cut the legs out from somebody's arguments to the point with either option I gave them to respond cut even deeper. So they chose option 3, which was an attempt to dismiss my comment outright by pointing out how few followers I had.

My response pointed out how fragile their identity was to worry about my follower count instead of the truth of my statement. Think that resulted in the person blocking me.

tl;dr The follower number is a dopamine fix for people who are too immersed in social media for their own good.