Why I Still Use RSS

I share this story from Marc at atthis.link for two reasons: that it is itself interesting and useful, and because I’ve also been using RSS lately and enjoying its respectfulness.
First, Marc’s article is itself a useful summary of why RSS is better than Twitter, Facebook, et al. He also highlights a few things I hadn’t realized or thought about, like the ability to set up an RSS subscription to YouTube channels and (sub)Reddits.
But more importantly to me, I’ve been using RSS a little more regularly in the last few months, and I’m loving it. I’m using Feedly, largely on my new iPad.
I was a heavy user of RSS around the time Google Reader was ended (too soon). But the Fever app by Shuan Inman I was using stopped getting active support around the same time that my life got busier. So RSS just kind of fell by the wayside.
But as Marc says, RSS is the internet at its best. A loose confederation of people without lock-in to specific business models of monetization or greediness for attention. (Yep, that’s a lightly veiled reference to Twitter, Google, and Facebook 🤓)
For those unfamiliar with RSS, the great news is that WordPress automatically provides RSS feeds. You don’t need to do anything to support people reading your site that way 🥳
3 Responses
Comments
I love RSS feeds. I pull them to auto-post popular podcast into my forum. I just wish Shopify made it east to get an Rss feed.
I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now, how to do social media better, and came to the same solution, RSS. I would like to see us go back to the personal website.
p.s. I read your post on my rss reader.