The RSS feed
Google recently announced it's plans to cut it's RSS reader service: Google Reader. People have been all over the internet claiming to know why Google shut down their RSS reader service: RSS is dead, complaints from website owners who want people to click through to their content, social media killed RSS, people are consuming information from other sources (ie: mobile).
But RSS serves another function: it's not news that's brought to us by our friends or connections; it's not curated for us by the news publishers and it's not now being served under social media. Instead, RSS is a feed of information from sources we curate ourselves. Sources that might not be on social media, sources our family or friends might not read and share, sources that we don't want popping up in a social atmosphere.
What do I mean? Look at the Smithsonian Institute's RSS options. Twenty-seven individual feeds to choose from instead of the all-in general feed or waiting for someone within our circles of networks to finally share, share and share content we might be interested in reading until it reaches us.
Look at the New York Times, more than thirty RSS feeds to choose from instead of the whole generic headlines torrent of news. If I'm only interested in American politics, there's an RSS for that. If I'm interested in travel or art, there's an RSS feed for that.
I don't have to wait for content to reach me or let other's choose which content they're going to share to my particular social networks.
What about my friends? Facebook's CEO has been known to claim that people get their news from their friends these days, not newspapers, not RSS feeds and not URLs. What if my friends aren't interested in paleolithic archeology? Does that mean I shouldn't seek out those articles? What if my connections aren't interested in news about ethnonationalism, does that mean I shouldn't have an RSS feed for those article, either? What if I have an appetite for jalapeno cupcakes but none of my 400+ Facebook friends do? Does that mean I shouldn't have someone where to receive a feed of those sorts of recipes?
And what about NSFW content? Facebooks too easily shares your content with your connections: what you're reading, what you Like, etc. Do I want my parents and family to know that I read erotica or like webpages about bondage? (whether I do or not is inconsequential) When I like Mistress Mary's Dungeon of Delights on Facebook my coworkers, friends and church groups can see my Like. When I read Confessions of a Porn Star I don't want my family or friends, coworkers or snooping news sources to know I'm reading those confessions.
No. I want my privacy. Again, I don't want to have to remember to go to each website individually, I want to go to one place and have my Op-Ed piece about ethnic cleansing in Palestine and then I want my funny anecdote about technology trends and then I want to see my less than respectable content. And maybe not in that order.
What I don't want is my friends knowing what I'm reading unless I choose to share the content. I don't want my friends feeding me what they think I might find interesting and I don't want social networks knowing or sharing my proclivity for tits and ass.
I'd rather just have an RSS where I can dump it all, maybe create a NSFW folder for those times where I can't be seen just perusing what I want.
RSS feeds also prevent those annoying auto-plays, whether video or audio, from annoying one's self, those nearby or ratting the individual out to his or her coworkers hat s/he's not working productively.
But RSS serves another function: it's not news that's brought to us by our friends or connections; it's not curated for us by the news publishers and it's not now being served under social media. Instead, RSS is a feed of information from sources we curate ourselves. Sources that might not be on social media, sources our family or friends might not read and share, sources that we don't want popping up in a social atmosphere.
What do I mean? Look at the Smithsonian Institute's RSS options. Twenty-seven individual feeds to choose from instead of the all-in general feed or waiting for someone within our circles of networks to finally share, share and share content we might be interested in reading until it reaches us.
Look at the New York Times, more than thirty RSS feeds to choose from instead of the whole generic headlines torrent of news. If I'm only interested in American politics, there's an RSS for that. If I'm interested in travel or art, there's an RSS feed for that.
I don't have to wait for content to reach me or let other's choose which content they're going to share to my particular social networks.
What about my friends? Facebook's CEO has been known to claim that people get their news from their friends these days, not newspapers, not RSS feeds and not URLs. What if my friends aren't interested in paleolithic archeology? Does that mean I shouldn't seek out those articles? What if my connections aren't interested in news about ethnonationalism, does that mean I shouldn't have an RSS feed for those article, either? What if I have an appetite for jalapeno cupcakes but none of my 400+ Facebook friends do? Does that mean I shouldn't have someone where to receive a feed of those sorts of recipes?
And what about NSFW content? Facebooks too easily shares your content with your connections: what you're reading, what you Like, etc. Do I want my parents and family to know that I read erotica or like webpages about bondage? (whether I do or not is inconsequential) When I like Mistress Mary's Dungeon of Delights on Facebook my coworkers, friends and church groups can see my Like. When I read Confessions of a Porn Star I don't want my family or friends, coworkers or snooping news sources to know I'm reading those confessions.
No. I want my privacy. Again, I don't want to have to remember to go to each website individually, I want to go to one place and have my Op-Ed piece about ethnic cleansing in Palestine and then I want my funny anecdote about technology trends and then I want to see my less than respectable content. And maybe not in that order.
What I don't want is my friends knowing what I'm reading unless I choose to share the content. I don't want my friends feeding me what they think I might find interesting and I don't want social networks knowing or sharing my proclivity for tits and ass.
I'd rather just have an RSS where I can dump it all, maybe create a NSFW folder for those times where I can't be seen just perusing what I want.
RSS feeds also prevent those annoying auto-plays, whether video or audio, from annoying one's self, those nearby or ratting the individual out to his or her coworkers hat s/he's not working productively.
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