Of course, my Aunt Millie’s tweet admitting she hates my mother’s coffee will not matter to anyone other than my mother and anyone else who may also dislike my mother’s coffee. In essence,I believe that the emperor’s new clothes fit some better than others.

In this regard, I don’t agree that Trent Reznor having publicly bared his soul has diminished his popularity or marred in any magnitude his fans’ perceptions of him. On the contrary, I would bet that for all the fans who have outwardly protested, there are ten times as many who sat back quietly admiring him for his openness wishing they could be more like him in that respect. If that were the case, it’s very possible that they would be out there singing his praises just as loudly, if not more so, than those who have protested.

I strongly subscribe to the school of thought that teaches us there are two unmistakable elements which strike the loudest chord with the online public; and subsequently it is these two traits that become the driving force which compels these people as individuals to share their discoveries with their fellow web dwellers. Most anything of note that has become viral has these two traits in common: Authenticity and Accessibility. This theory has been simply yet eloquently outlined and demonstrated in a video presentation to the Library of Congress highlighting the findings of an experiment conducted by the University of Kansas Anthropology Dept. entitled “The Anthropology of YouTube”. which, of course, can be found on YouTube. I would highly recommend watching this video to anyone in the marketing sector or anyone with an interest in mass psychology.

I think Trent Reznor is and will always be a student of the study of man and as being such, he knew exactly what he was doing before he signed on to Twitter as well as exactly how he would be signing off and thereby denouncing Twitter, as it were. He, after all, regrettably so, admits that he had made himself too accessible to his fans and he openly blamed himself for allowing his own authenticity to peak through as being a mistake. This, for all intensive purposes could very well have been Trent Reznor’s own anthropological experiment in which he was both subject and tester, and in keeping true to form, he had to push this theory to it’s limits. I suppose we will have to wait for his next public move to get a hint of his findings. Hmmm… If only he were still on Twitter.

And I know, discussion is certainly not the point of Twitter. I’m just saying I find that sort of connectivity to be pointless. I’d rather get a monthly newsletter from an artist than their random hourly musings.

I do prefer a bit of mystery in life. I guess that’s why my foray into the world of Twitter lasted seven hours before I deleted my account.

I no more care what Trent Reznor thinks than I care what Eugenia thinks.

People should *not* be expected to “open up on their blog, twitter, music, lunch break…” Or, to put it another way, people who do not follow Eugenia’s definition of an open and healthy society should not be made to feel inferior. A loud mouth, or a poison pen, does not a balanced society make. In fact, just the opposite.

I think Trent made the right decision if for no other reason than he made the decision himself. He chose to get involved with Twitter. He chose to end his involvement with Twitter. Why is that a problem?

Musicians do not owe the world their innermost thoughts. Nor do they owe anyone a step-by-step record of their daily lives.

Twitter is just another form of voyeuristic tabloid journalism, engorged on its own self importance, feeding an insatiable audience too feeble-minded to create their own lives and think their own thoughts.

Frankly, I think society has taken a sorry, scary turn.

And, yes, I’m well aware these are merely my opinions. They can be discarded as readily and painlessly as one would discard used Kleenex.

I fail to see how it’s not a wise way to communicate when you are simply giving yourself out for others to read. That’s _the_ way to communicate, without any masks and reality distortion fields. It’s pure.

Of course, as you said, there will be people who won’t get it and they will call you out for this or that. But do they really matter? I mean, if they don’t get you, they don’t get you. But there will be others who will. If open communication gets you come closer to 100 people while alienating another 200, that’s better than not having any relation to any of the 300. To me, the relation in itself is the important thing.

Communicating just via PR is just so old century to me. I wish more people were more outspoken and not so “privacy-sensitive”. I don’t understand what they have to hide anyway. Unless it doesn’t put you in legal trouble, it’s good enough to be shared with the world. It will liberate you. Be it a lowly worker with a free wordpress account, or a rock star.

That’s my opinion anyway. I guess our disagreement is more philosophical than anything else.

I use my blog and Twitter to spit out everything I feel and think. Sometimes, shocking things. Back in the day I used to run a 200,000+ pageviews per day tech news site, and I can tell you, as I am a strongly opinionated person, it has earned me a lot of enemies over the years.

This has not stopped me from telling people who I really am though, or what I believe. Trent Reznor and any other celebrity should just grow some thicker skin and be true to themselves. If he’s a sensitive person these days, that’s who he should project that he is. Not hide it.

The trolls will eventually die down. They all grow up eventually, and the next-gen of trolls would have growing up in the “new” Trent Reznor era, and so they would take him for granted and not troll on him.

Besides, the “softer” Trent Reznor will earn him new fans. I am now more of a fan of his than I was 2 days ago (I don’t particularly like his music, only my husband does in our home).