Okay so realistically how long will it take me to learn to use this?

@Florencehrscott I felt that the user interface started to make more sense the more people I followed. It can seem very blank at first without much content to interact with

If you can figure out a tool like fedifinder or debirdify to find some of the people you know from twitter then it will give you a good start. Searching hashtags for things you're interested in is also a good way to find people.