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I think that a healthy way to regard on-line posting and interaction is to view it as an actual conversation where all parties are sitting together. Make your on-line conversations and posts just as Integral as they'd be if you were present in person. Another factor here is that many people are paid by advertising firms to tweet and post content. It is easy for this arrangement to degrade the significance of content. We have to keep this in mind as tweeters and bloggers--as a call to content quality. Lastly, I think that for all it's users and traffic, that social media and constant on-line relationships and conversations are still a Novelty in this day and time and that an on-line etiquette is still not all that firmly rooted in the main-stream psyche. This is however, not an excuse.

Bingo. The valueless chatter polluting the stream from the echo chamber is driving me crazy. In this new "social" world we live in honest and unique contributions to any conversation is desired and paramount to our growth as a society. Let's challenge each other to expand our thoughts on a topic. Let's extend the value of a popular news story by offering an alternative angle. Let's question each others positions by adding new context to an established story. We are all connected. We share this moment in time. We control our era's contribution to mankind.

Well said John.
Also, I've thought of another point of protocol that could also help to keep the contributions relative and authentic, which I myself have violated and that is to make sure that one has read all previous comments to a post Before posting a contribution of your own. This may indeed seem laborious, however we now have the ability to contribute to a conversation that was started, say yesterday, for example without being thwarted by time zone restrictions and the like, but the blow back to that is that in order to keep our contributions relevant we have to get 'up to speed' with that particular discussion. On-line relationships and discussions take some actual effort if we want to really contribute and not just 'blab' on-line. Like I said, I have often failed on 'catching up to the conversation' in present time by not briefing myself on all that has been said to date, but I am making a fresh effort on this now.

This is really great info for both old and new bloggers. I am guilty of this and realize that it's so important to expand and add to the conversation like Darren is recommending. Thanks for the great tips!