I use an instance I host myself that only has one other user on it. I've found that in such a case you have to follow very aggressively (to get content federating over to your instance; X who I follow RTed something from Y that sounds interesting, Y's profile seems like a good vibe, I follow) and unfollow aggressively (Y is live-tooting a reality show with many, many posts), which is kind of doing the work more manually that Twitter's algorithmic regime does for you. But it's also giving you control, so... trade-offs.
I use an instance I host myself that only has one other user on it. I've found that in such a case you have to follow very aggressively (to get content federating over to your instance; X who I follow RTed something from Y that sounds interesting, Y's profile seems like a good vibe, I follow) and unfollow aggressively (Y is live-tooting a reality show with many, many posts), which is kind of doing the work more manually that Twitter's algorithmic regime does for you. But it's also giving you control, so... trade-offs.