Boy, howdy! I have over 20K followers on Twitter and more on Medium. I try HARD to acknowledge every response I get with at least a like or a clap, just to make a connection and let people know I'm listening. Let me tell you something: That in itself takes up a substantial (and sometimes substantially burdensome) amount of time.

If I actually tried to respond to all or even most comments? I'd never get it done. And I'd never get anything else done either.

Thanks for writing this! One of the big problems with short-form social media like Twitter is that people are apt to react strongly to issue without context.

Just yesterday, somebody took it upon themself to lecture me about my tweet promoting a recent article. They were going to let me know just where I got it wrong. (They weren't obnoxious, but they wanted to let me know the error of my ways.)

Then they made three points that were all but identical to points I myself had made in the actual article, which they evidently had not read.

This is a problem baked into the system on platforms like Twitter. People are primed to expect neatly packaged ideas that fit into one tiny tweet or perhaps one small thread, and when the ideas are too big for that, they can become disappointed or even angry.

But anyway, Devon is a uni teacher at the undergraduate and graduate level. Presenting challenging ideas to students is traditional in teaching — to spark critical thinking and discussion.

It looks some of the people you quoted were trying to shut down discussion without thinking about what Devon was trying to say.