Some of the best things from the old internet are still preserved with RSS. Content is shared via simple files, which means the slow-loading, ad-stuffed and tracker-filled clutter of the modern internet are mostly absent.
There aren’t any algorithms. RSS readers are wonderfully dumb. There’s no AI sifting through content to find whatever will outrage you the most. You just get new posts and mark them as read. It’s a calmer world.
With RSS I follow lots of people writing about normal people things. People blog about getting back into playing the drums, a fun book they just read, a tough problem they’re working through and the other day to day things of life. This type of content tends to get buried on social media — it doesn’t get the clicks and sell ads like fear and outrage do.
I feel like a curmudgeon, but i feel all of these things. I dont think that the new web is completely terrible, what is terrible is that the options of an algorithm ran by companies with differing goals is seemingly the only option. RSS still works, its fantastic, I personally love it, but theres only a small fraction of the internet that it reaches both ways. Few people have a reader, even...