Reading online

I’m off real-time news: no ‘breaking’, no ‘live reporting’. Instead, I read long-form articles from trusted sources such as The Conversation. I don’t have an account on Medium, Substack or any other Silicon Valley VC-funded centralised proprietary thingy. My anxiety levels are already in a dreadful state, without the need of added stress from constant news intake. No algorithm, no everything now, I choose what and when to read.

RSS feeds

Cutting off the news doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s going on in the world, in fact, I’ve been using RSS for many years now. Feedbin is my current daily platform where I follow the websites that interest me, organised under the categories:

• Personal blogs.
• Sound and tech-related websites.
• Facts from the game and music industries.
• Info from the government, mostly gov.uk.
• YouTube subscriptions.
• Notifications of any webmentions that my website might receive.
• Newsletters, to keep my email clean.

Update 5 December 2023: I stopped using Feedbin →

Pocket

I collect interesting links and videos from various sources (including Feedbin) on Pocket, which parses web pages like the well-built reader view in Firefox. There, I have a flexible and efficient routine:

• Go through my read list using the in-built filters (video, article, etc).
• Consume the longest articles on my Kobo, thanks to its Pocket integration. Reading articles on a retro illuminated e-ink device is orders of magnitude better, in my opinion.
• I also send the most interesting videos from Feedbin to Pocket. By doing so, I never visit YouTube’s website, which saves me from both its “social” features and the suggestions algorithm. It’s why I have not (yet) deleted the account.

Related topics

DEGROWTH

INTERNET

PERSONAL

SOFTWARE

SUSTAINABILITY