Twitter was endless; RSS had a stopping point
Before Twitter became my main mode of news discovery, I primarily relied on RSS readers to keep track of news.
In a lot of ways, RSS was way better. It definitely wasn’t laser focused on making me angry, like Twitter’s algorithmic feed was. And I had the possibility of Completeness. Like, I could read all of the articles in my feed, and be done with the news for a while. I’ve forgotten what that’s like, but it strikes me as worthwhile to replicate.
I never used the algorithmic Twitter feed, because it always made me mad over something stupid. I always used chronological lists, sorted by topic of interest. It took a long time to curate those lists, and in a lot of ways, they were incredibly useful. But in other ways, they were information overload. There was little mechanism for finding the important stuff, just the new stuff.
So, what now?
Mastodon
It’s tempting to recreate my Twitter experience on Mastodon. And, to some extent, I have. But I’m also working to find a more intentional relationship with information, rather than create a 1:1 Twitter replacement. I haven’t had the habit forming aspects of Mastodon kick in yet, and I’m hoping to keep it that way.
Rediscovering Websites
In my RSS feed days, the system worked for me because I was laser focused on very specific things. I was early in my career, and focused on individual political campaigns that I worked on, and I wanted to consume every piece of media about that topic. I no longer need, or want, to do that.
What I’ve done instead is pick a handful of websites that I particularly find interesting, which focus on specific topics, and added direct links to them from my phone’s home screen. These include The Verge, Greater Greater Washington, The Washington Post, and a few others. When I feel the need to scroll something, these are my goto’s, rather than Twitter or Mastodon.
Ultimately, it gives me the benefits of scrolling Twitter, with the side benefit that I frequently run out of things to read.
Telegram
I am posting this piece via a Telegram bot I created as the interface to this blog, so it’s only natural I mention it. Telegram is for me what discord is for others: a social conduit to groups of specific people. It’s incredible for that, if a bit overwhelming at times.
Podcasts
RSS lives on, in podcast form. I love podcasts. They’re my primary interface with long form content, outside of books. They serve the purpose that magazine articles serve for many others: a bit delayed, more thoughtful, longer term looks at what’s going on in the world. Plus, I can do the dishes while engaged with them.
In the new year, my plan is to lean more heavily into podcasts than ever.
YouTube
I have a dirty secret: I love YouTube. I just love it. This is a particular place where I need to be careful: in many ways, your thinking is a reflection of all the media you consume, and YouTube is tailor made to lead you down some weird paths here. You need to be extremely careful about engaging with it’s algorithm. I recommend avoiding it, and just using the chronological subscription feed.
But, as a media environment, it’s truly incredible, especially if you want to learn about niche topics. I cannot give up YouTube, but I need to be careful not to go overboard.