That’s the question that lingered for me after last month’s Greener Gadgets conference and competition, which inspired inventors to build the proverbial better, more energy-efficient mousetrap.

Many of the finalists were curiously focused on measuring energy usage, for the purpose of educating consumers about the impact of their actions on the environment. Hats off to the creators of the Bware Water Meter device which connects to a faucet and displays water usage, and the makers of the Powerhog energy monitoring piggybank-shaped meter that one plugs into a TV or gaming device to demonstrate the gadget’s usage and teach children about the value of electricity. I applaud the inventors of the Environmental Traffic Light, an open source project that can be placed at a busy intersection to display the local CO2 levels, atmospheric pressure, and other environmental conditions in hopes of educating the public.

But the grand prize-winning gadget, the Tweet-a-Watt, left me a bit bewildered. Much like the Kill-a-Watt from P3 International, the Tweet-a-Watt would measure your energy usage by the hour, day, week, or year, but would then transmit it to everyone you know via Twitter. Talk about too much information.

While guilt can be a powerful motivator for some folks, this wouldn’t work for me. I certainly acknowledge the educational aspect of this gadget, but fear it may backfire, as friends try to out-conserve one another in live broadcasts to their followers. The “losers” might get shamed out of the competition and give up. It might become like the national debt clock in Times Square—before it ran out of digits—that depressed passersby with a sense of powerlessness that turned to numbness after a while. So what if the U.S. is $10 trillion in the red?

I maintain that doing good is its own reward. No need to get cheers or jeers for shedding a few watts. Tweet all you want; my usage will remain a private affair.

See you in the neighborhood,

Nancy Meyer