Saturday, November 27, 2010

5 Rather Senselessly Snowed-under

As much as I love moving along with the times, I can't see the point in RSS feeds. I mean, I understand the logistics, and see the reasoning behind why people are supposed to subscribe. But really, why would you want to?

There are eleventy-billion ways to use the internet, but for me it usually comes down to these three:


  1. Keeping up to date with friends/contacts, which I usually do by checking email and Facebook (and perhaps now the people I "follow" on Blogger). Facebook has it's own "news feed" so everything I want to see is right there anyway, and Blogger seems to have the same kind of thing - listing details of the blogs that you follow on your "dashboard".
  2. Looking for a specific thing, e.g. the answer to a question (usually to prove I am right), a map (so I know where I am about to go) or what's on sale at the supermarket.
  3. Surfing!! Yes, actually looking around and discovering new and exciting things out there.

Perhaps my view on RSS feeds stems from the fact that I'm basically a "phaser". I'm often interested in something new - I'll really get into the swing of it, try to learn what it's all about, and imagine I'll become mistress of that particular domain; before realising I probably won't and moving onto the next new thing. That is, I go through a lot of "phases".

Take gaming, which we know I love. While gaming itself is not a phase for me, the games I play usually are - I go through long periods of playing nothing followed by equally long, but intense periods of playing the next new thing (think Korean Gamer).

To cut to the chase, I'm never invested enough in any one thing to want to read about it every damn day. Having Google Reader on my plate is just another thing to have to check, and no doubt would lead to me becoming (R)ather (S)enselessly (S)nowed-under with information I probably didn't really want in the first place.

Call me old-fashioned, but I'd rather go out there looking for information myself.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

you are invited to follow my blog

Mel said...

Everybody uses the internet in different ways, that's why there are so many varied programs around to help us navigate the web.

I love RSS feeds, I've added a feed for each of the participants who's blogs I love in this course. It's because of my RSS feed that I saw your post.

However, yes we all access different information and I presume there will be areas of this course where I go "meh" and you go into raptures :)

Fredrik said...

I personally fell straight in love with RSS feeds. Saves me a lot of time re-visiting sites to look for updates.

Saire said...

Yes, I may have been too hasty with my negative view of RSS. Since writing this post, I have checked my Google Reader daily. LOL. We shall have to see - my inner jury is still out :P

Michael said...

I didnt really care for rss until i got my ipad. Another thing im not a fan of with rss feeds is how some sites you only get the header of the article and you still have to visit the site to get the content! Whats the point?

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