In one of blogs I read regularly, I came across a post about RSS feeds today, which linked to another post on the same subject. I am a fairly literate, intelligent person but still I can feel a slight rise in my pulse rate when thinking about this kind of computer stuff. If I am painfully honest, I'm a little bit scared. 'What of?' I ask myself and I'm not sure of the answer.
Two of the reasons given for subscribing to RSS feeds were that it will save me time and mental energy. Anything that will do that has to be a Good Thing. But part of me wonders if it will just eat up more of my time. If it becomes so easy to read other people's blogs all in one place, will I not spend more time sitting in front of my screen rather than intereacting with my family?
I guess that's a question of how much I can discipline myself. While I was away in both Swanage and St David's, I blogged from public computers and only had half-hour sessions. This made for hasty e-mail checks and dashed-off posts. But it also made me wonder how long I really do spend on the computer every day if a half-hour burst seemed so rushed?
The ideas about RSS feeds also made me feel suddenly a little insecure: would more people read my blog if I had an RSS feed? So now it feels like something urgent to sort out and understand. Instead of allowing myself to use the tool to help me, I quickly turn it into a stick to beat myself with, (and you don't even have an RSS feed...!)
So I have subscribed to three blogs by RSS feed and I have put it on my 'to do' list to see if I can do it on this one; perhaps I will find out how in 'Blogging for Dummies' which I still haven't read! And I am a tiny bit proud of myself for this little foray deeper into the world of blogging. Thanks Jennifer for encouraging me!
4 comments:
I subscribe to you and many others in my Google Reader and it has greatly simplified my blog reading. It took awhile to get the hang of it, but now I can't imagine how I ever did without it.;-)
Kathy @ www.restorationplace.typepad.com
Oh! I'm pleased and relieved to know that I don't have to do anything to enable people to subscribe and I'm pleased that you subscribe, it's so encouraging to know that you're enjoying reading!
Gaynor
I subscribe to you by RSS feed, too. But on your question of how much time... Hmmm. Before I used a feed reader, I would sometimes sit down and click through my bookmarked blogs to see if anyone had updated that day. Now I just check the feeds and it shows me what has been updated and I only look at those. But I agree that the time spent is really a matter of self-control. I often think I lack this and spend too much time but then I read someone's blog who mentions that they have 160 or so unread posts in their feed reader and I reevaluate.
Thanks for the link! Glad to hear you're discovering the wide world of RSS feeds. :)
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