Twitter! When it comes to the real time aspect I know nothing better than Twitter.
What makes it so good?
Whatever event happens right now (WhatsApp down? Elections in a country? A TV show running on TV [1]?) go to Twitter and search for it with relevant keywords and you'll find people writing about it.
[1] at least in Germany
In my experience that's a firehose with no meaningful real-time quality metric available. Perhaps there's something I'm missing.
I find it overwhelming. I don't know how to get over that.
I wholeheartedly agree. It's great as long as the keyword you're searching for is easily distinguishable. Whenever something happens and I want to find out ahead of the news-cycle it's my go to ...