Conversation about Conversations

Via Eric Grant Will Richardson writes:

" ... is the conversation moving from more centralized platforms to a decentralized pseudo-realtime mode? are we losing the quality of thought that goes into a paper or a blog post in favor of less contextual snippets and links? .... ".

I have started to see much more Twitter activity and 'list blogs' of late. Are we changing to a medium with less thought and more fire from the hip spontaneity. No stopping to think or analyze? Is this the web implementation of 'Blink'? Is there room for both kinds of communications? Help us.