Why you should have an RSS reader

Brian Barrett, writing for Wired:

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (or Rich Site Summary) and it was first stitched into the tapestry of the open web around the turn of the millennium. Its aim is straightforward: to make it easy to track updates to the content of a given website in a standardized format.

In practice, and for your purposes, that means it can give you a comprehensive, regularly updated look at all of the content your favorite sites publish throughout the day. Think of it as the ultimate aggregator; every morsel from every source you care about, fed directly to you. Or, more commonly, fed to you through an intermediary known as an RSS feed reader, software that helps you wrangle all of those disparate headlines into something remotely manageable.

After Google Reader was scrapped, I've since used The Old Reader, which I like for its simplicity, minimalism, and user-friendliness. The free account lets me subscribe to 100 websites and blogs, which is more than I can handle.

An RSS reader gives me the autonomy to curate the kinds of websites I only want to read. I check it once or twice a day, mostly after work, without the hassle of having to go through social media.  I hope you get to try it, too.

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