RSS – Consume internet consciously

The world was changed by TikTok. Those short videos are wrecking havoc in my life. I am trying to free myself of this addiction. I hope I have found a solution. I will share the method with you. You can also try it in case you have same problems as I do.

This blog is going to be long, so feel free to skip to the sections you find necessary. I will write about how “Shorts” have impacted my life. I see RSS as a solution. We will briefly discuss RSS before getting into my preferred tools. Finally, for people who are newly starting with RSS, I have section with some useful sites to follow.

I was never a fan of TikTok. I considered it unworthy to even have an account. I could not understand how such short videos provide any information – I wasn’t even sure they are enjoyable. Similarly, I didn’t have an account in Insta as well.

I always revered Youtube. Unfortunately 2 years back, around 2023, they added the shorts section. Now I not only watch 2.5 hours of continuous reels but also have Insta account.

This has had detrimental effect on my focus, time management and my ability to find joy. Firstly, due to the kick which I derive out of these 1 min videos, I can’t tolerate longer videos.

Secondly, each short doesn’t ask for much commitment to watch but finally I end up feeling guilty for wasting 2 hrs.

Finally, these shorts throw one climax after another. After watching 5 best catches, winning moments, wickets, dives etc in just 5 mins, I find to hard to sit through a 3hr T20 match. The reels overstimulate me and I get disappointed that none of the catches in the entire match was as thrilling as those 5 mins in the reel.

I want to take control of my life. I want to feel the joy of suspense of watching a long match instead of feeling bored. I want to feel awed by the next stunt instead of considering it banal because I have seen 100 similar stunts in reels.

I feel I can solve this by slowing things down. I want to consume information more consciously and deliberately on the internet. But I find it difficult because the algorithms are so powerful. One look at the screen and it magically hypnotizes me to start swiping the reels.

RSS which stands for Really Simple Syndication was invented in 1999 and still lives. It lives a low key, less flashy – underground sort of life but still powers a lot of things.

Closest analogy to its functioning is that of a social media website. The website keeps us informed about the latest posts from people we follow.

RSS does the same but for everything except few social media sites. You can keep a watch on any website like news, blogs, podcast, video platforms etc. and get notified when content is added.

All this can happen from one single application and ideally you would never have to “BROWSE” the internet. So when you don’t meander wildly you won’t stumble upon one of those reels. And you will rescue yourself from wasting hours swiping at it.

Technically, RSS is a protocol that can be used by applications to display updates in their website (“Feed”). When RSS links are accessed it returns an XML files with sections defined as per protocols. It is not very convenient for humans to read it. So, applications are needed to display the content comfortably. Read ahead to know the software I use.

As mentioned above we need an application to fetch the feeds from the RSS links. We would also have to find those RSS links in the first place. There are many ways to do it but I only write about the methods I use.

If this is your first time then you can simply follow my method. If you are experienced and you have a different way, then please use the comment section to inform us about it.

There are many RSS readers available. In the RSS reader of my choice I ideally look for the following features:

1. Free
2. No restriction on how many RSS links I can follow
3. Ability to organize them into folders
4. Compatible with Linux, Windows and Android
5. Sync across platforms

Unfortunately, I could not find a single tool which meets all my needs. As a result, I resorted to the following two different tools – one for mobile and another for laptop. However, I mostly use the android version mostly, since my mobile is constantly with me.

Platform	Software
Windows/Linux/Mac	RSS Guard
Android	Feeder (There are 2 Feeder. Use the one in the link)

1. Lack of common app: There is no common app between mobile and laptop platforms
2. Sync issue: Doesn’t sync across platforms even when using same application. i.e. If you have been reading on your windows PC and then you switch to Linux it won’t tell you which links had been already read.

Remember, our aim is to stop swiping. These shorts are most effective on mobiles so just using RSS reader on mobile phone adequately reduces the problem. At this point of our addiction lets not worry about syncing RSS. Baby steps first!

Nevertheless, I will mention some commercial options which sync across multiple platforms. If you have money to spend or you are willing to work under the restrictions of the free versions that the paid software come with, then you can try.

RSS Reader	Platform(s)	Download / Access Link
Feedly	Web, iOS, Android	feedly.com
Inoreader	Web, iOS, Android	inoreader.com
NewsBlur	Web, iOS, Android	newsblur.com

I mentioned before that RSS have gone a bit underground. So it is often hidden from plain sight. Some sites might provide the link directly. So simply look for RSS symbol (like at the bottom of this blog). If it is not evident then I will tell you two methods that I am aware of to uncover the RSS links.

The first one is using the paid apps mentioned above. These often have a tab which provides you with a single click option to subscribe to RSS depending on your interests.

The problem I faced with this approach was that I would impulsively subscribe to a lot of feeds. Then there will be too much update and I can’t follow it. I stop using the RSS because there is just too much to process.

The other approach which I have come to like is the slow painful approach. See I told you I wanted to slow things down.

1. Visit the website, podcast, YouTube channel or news channel or anything else that you regularly visit.
2. If you are using Feeder
   • Press the three vertical dots at the top right
   • Select add Feed
   • Enter the URL of the page you visited
   • Click “Search”
   • It might discover the RSS link and display. Feeder might fail in getting RSS link. In that case use the next method
   • Select the link that you wish to follow
3. If your are using chrome on Laptop you can use plugins to identify RSS links. I use Get RSS Feed URL Extension in chrome
   • Simply click the extension in the desired page. If it has an RSS link, it will display.

The main idea of the whole blog is to stop Browsing internet via a Google search. So every time you visit internet be conscious and observe what you are watching.

If you are watching a video on YouTube get conscious and ask what are you enjoying. If you would like to see more of it then research for more creators of similar content. Go to their channels and retrieve its RSS link.

If you are watching news then get conscious. Ask if your trust the source. If yes then find RSS link for that news channel. You might also want to have counter opinions. So, find those channels with a counter opinion and get its RSS links.

Repeat this until you can finally get everything in your RSS app. You shouldn’t need to sieve to the large volume of internet data soon.

If you are starting this list might help your set up your RSS feed. Some places where you can find RSS are

1. News and magazine websites
2. YouTube
3. Reddit communities
4. Blog sites
   • Blogroll.org: This site has a collection of blogs. Most have RSS links
   • Of course this blog has one as well. The link is in the footer 😉

I have felt that I need to distance myself from the short video formats. It is having detrimental effects on mental well-being. I try to distance myself from it until I can achieve the necessary self control.

RSS feels like an effective solution because it allows me to be on the internet while keeping the distractions away. I also keeps me up to date with my interests without any manipulative algorithm. Building up my RSS Feed list is also helping me be more aware of what I am consuming.

The steps to setup the RSS in this blog might help others with similar challenge as I face. For the beginners, these RSS ideas might provide some inspiration on building their RSS list of feeds.