While I know that Twitter is doing just fine with or without my 140-character contributions, I also know that people are fickle, and when using something becomes too annoying, they stop.

Twitter is an astounding platform for information, but it's a total blank slate - which means it's an astounding platform for disinformation, too.

When I go a stretch without tweeting, I will occasionally get an email from my mom, checking in. I always find this amusing but also gratifying: Thanks to Twitter, I can keep in touch with my parents and let them in on what I'm doing in a way that even the regular phone calls of a doting daughter can't do.

Twitter is an amazing public tool with an incredible capacity for public good.

Good advice is just watch what you say on Facebook, on Twitter, on social networks because being sued is not fun. Filing a lawsuit is not fun. And being fired and having to do all of those things is not fun. So just avoid it.

Seeing how easy it has been to use Twitter for good has exposed the double-edged sword of how easy it could be to co-opt.