Perils of a Keyword Culture

I had a thing in mind to write about today, but something happened.

In my post from Wednesday, I wrote, in part, about my distaste for e-readers, like the Nook and Kindles. As is my usual practice, I "tweeted" that article for my Twitter and my Facebook H&R followers on my blog's "off" day. Of course, Tweets are public, unless you set them not to be so. I hash-tagged my "tweet" (good God, it feels ridiculous using this terminology) with "#kindle"; therefore, it was seen by "Kindle Review" --  a Twitter account that, it seems, promotes and reviews Kindle products.

Well, the Kindle Review "favorited" my post.

Did they read it? Or, did they just see #kindle as a hash tag and "favorite" it automatically? I think we both know the answer to that.

If they had read my piece, they would have known that if more people like me were in the world, their site would have no raison d'etre. Nope. It is all about sharing, these days -- all about networking with the community. [insert robot movements here]

And, maybe, here lies is the key to a paradox I have been feeling ever since I started chirping my anti-community sentiments. I speak, all of the time, about individualism and against the compulsive need people seem to feel for "community" and "sharing" everything, yet I write a blog. Let's face it: every writer of a blog is trying to gather a "community" about him. But this little Twitter incident helped my to unravel the paradox.

E-books Are Not Evil and Neither Am I

Did you ever notice how people tend to connect a statement of opinion with an insult?

In accordance with many recommendations by pediatrics experts (something about impeded brain development), my wife and I didn't let our kids watch TV for their first two years on Earth. A lot of people we knew openly said that they would get work done this way: set the kids up with a video and go to work into the kitchen, or, wherever.

Recently, my wife brought up that when she would mention our choice to other parents, they would get defensive; they'd act as if she was implying that they were bad parents. I guess, in that case, we kind of were implying that -- or, at least, implying that they were making a bad choice by letting their kids watch TV. In fact, I suppose it was more than an implication. So, I sort of understand their reaction, even though I think they should have simply accepted the fact that it was a mere difference of opinion and moved on. But when it comes to their kids, people are touchy, indeed.

But what I do not understand, at all, is why, when heart-close things like kids are not involved, people take offense to other simple statements of opinion.