Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The Downside of RSS Feeds
I certainly see the benefit of RSS feeds. If you are constantly scanning numerous newspapers, magazines, websites, etc. for information that pertains to your particular interest or field of endeavor, the RSS option can be a very welcome timesaver. What bothers me about this mindset is that a person can become too specialized in their information sources. It potentially excludes a person from finding some new tangent of information that could lead to another intellectual pursuit or revelation. I love reading the Press & Sun-Bulletin and the Ithaca Journal page by page because I feel like I’m going exploring. Some of the more fascinating articles can be buried in the middle of the paper somewhere. I feel that signing up for an RSS feed is an assault on my natural curiosity.
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2 comments:
I agree with you to a point, Ed. But I think you have to keep the problem of information overload in mind and look at news feeding as a way to counter that problem. Students have a limited capacity for soaking in information and are side tracked by too much at once, especially when they're not exactly sure what they're looking for. Still, it might be said that they are more used to this overloaded environment in the media than us immigrants. Regardless, RSS feeding is a great concept for specialized research. It's like research on a silver platter. Journalism is using Bloglines right now to specialize in news beat areas outside local news. I'll keep everyone updated on how RSSing works with the seniors.
As an educator, I really like the idea of reading information electronically, which specialize in my field of study. The old way of collecting and/ reading information through journal subscriptions took up alot of time. RSS is a great tool to keep me organized and current with the latest news.
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