As Chris eloquently mentioned, Twitter has had the unintended (although not unforeseen) side effect that we all blog less. It’s easier to make a 140-character semi-coherent sound bite than to write a well-worded, thought-out paragraph. Unfortunately, within the ever-flowing Twitter stream, the noise often drowns the signal, and the signal is so much harder to find after the fact as it scrolls relentlessly by.

Which is all fine to say, as a consumer of that stream, but as a producer, perhaps I can do something about it.

I read blogs via Google Reader. I used to use Bloglines, until it got fragile. However, it appears that since their acquisition, their product has improved enormously. Anyways, with a good feedreader, reading blogs is as convenient, and much more satisfying, than Twitter.

I like blogs because:

* Ideas don’t have to be boiled down to 140 characters that may or may not be sufficient to contain the idea.
* Ideas can be discussed in a comment stream that is obviously and permanently attached to that article.

That pretty much covers it.

But I use Twitter because it’s easier. Yes, it’s lazy.

I often post something to Twitter with the intention of coming back and writing the whole idea, but it so seldom happens, because life is busy. But many interesting projects have come out of posts that I’ve taken the time to write thoroughly, rather than just being content with a one-liner.

So, thanks, Chris, for the call to action. I’ll see if I can be more intentional about this in the coming weeks.