Reader's digest

Using RSS as an escape from algorithmic feeds, and how to get started

July 31, 2023

Rebooting is a newsletter about using gadgets and software as tools for empowerment, rather than productivity, so we can better tend to the things we love. It’s written by Jordan McMahon and edited by Medea Giordano

It’s taken me nearly 30 years to love myself enough to enjoy my own company. Until last year, I struggled with separating feelings of loneliness from being alone; spare time felt like sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for bad news. On nights alone, I'd try to distract myself by watching repeats of Regular Show or causing trouble in Red Dead Redemption II; anything to not obsess over my own woes. But mostly, I tried to avoid spending much time alone at all.

Eventually all my pent up negative feelings and unaddressed grief led me to a constant state of waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’d effectively given my emotions the landlord special—paint over my problems with distractions and a good time—but like a bad paint job, that couldn’t hide the fact that underneath it all, I was profoundly sad and didn’t know what to do about it. That carried into my time spent with family, friends, and people I dated, and made it difficult for others to be around me. I get it; I didn’t exactly enjoy my own company in those moments either.

The accident didn’t just leave me immobile for four months; it took away two of my healthiest coping mechanisms—long bike rides and trips to the gym—and confined me to an apartment with limited access to the outside world. At the same time, the fallout from the accident widened a preexisting rift in my relationship, which had already been crumbling for the better part of a year. I’d never felt more alone in my own home or skin before, nor had I ever been less equipped to deal with it.

I knew I had to deal with it to get through everything life had thrown at me, and the distractions I’d turned to in the past either weren’t accessible to me at the time or had overstayed their welcome in my den of solitude. It took some time, but eventually I learned to only give my anxiety, grief, and sadness as much space as they needed to heal, and not a second longer. After a few months of being alone with your thoughts, you discover that basking in your deepest pains only makes the good moments harder to enjoy.

I’d lost so many things I held dear, but learned to love other things so much more. Sure, I couldn’t ride my bike along the water or across town to my favorite bar in my old neighborhood, but I could get up and make myself a drink while I watched a new show, or sit on the balcony and enjoy the breeze while my thoughts drift to the background. Eventually, the silence that used to create so much anxiety became an escape from the chaos the accident threw into my life. I could use that space to focus on making the most of what I had in front of me. It didn’t change the fact that my body and heart were deeply hurting, but it made it easier to believe things wouldn’t be that way forever. I could finally trust my mind to find a healthy distraction when the reality of my situation got to be too much. 

What’s on the menu

During my recovery, my relationship with my phone was nearly as unhealthy as it had been during peak quarantine. It was my only way to stay in touch with friends who I couldn’t drive to go see anymore. And when my back hurt too much to even lift my head to see my TV, my iPhone 12 Mini’s tiny screen was my only way of entertaining myself with TV shows or games. Eventually my interest in that all waned, and I decided to revisit my RSS feed to spend more time reading things that interested me, and sparked the curiosity that I’d lost since the accident rattled my brain a bit. 

If you’re unfamiliar with RSS (Really Simple Syndication), it’s a way for websites to publish updates to feeds for things like blogs or podcasts. These feeds can be viewed separately, either by site or by a specific site’s categories, or viewed in a centralized feed. Think of it like Twitter before Twitter: one place to view all the latest from the sources that interest you. It’s a great way to keep yourself informed without having to check individual sites, but without careful curation, it can be just as overwhelming as checking Twitter after a day away from the web.

My mind was too occupied with insurance claims, lawyers, and doctor’s visits to keep up with the political landscape of 2022, so I started removing those in the hopes of only finding things that interested me without bumming me out. Once I had that list of websites, I started organizing them into folders to make it easier to check-in by topic, rather than just by publish date. If I’m just looking to see what’s new in the world of TV, I don’t need to blindly scroll past all the tech news I try not to indulge in after business hours. 

It’s not a fool-proof way to stay up-to-date: not every site has a user-friendly RSS feed, and oftentimes paywalls prevent you from reading the full article without switching apps and logging in. Still, in a time when I struggled to connect with the rest of the world, RSS gave me a way to find things that I’d enjoy without having to sink time into shuffling around different apps in the hopes of finding something good.

All you can eat

Despite its name, setting up your own RSS feed of sources you like requires a lot of work upfront. First, you have to choose an RSS reader: the backend that syncs your feeds, lets you read and unread articles, and save filters if you’re into fancier features. There are free tiers from services like Feedly and Inoreader, though those often limit things like how many feeds you can subscribe to. Some RSS clients (more on that in a second) offer their own backend syncing, but then you’re limited to the platforms that app is available on. 

Since that doesn’t matter to me, I use Reeder, an app that’s exclusive to Apple platforms, but it’s excellent on every single one. It’s snappy, powerful, and elegant; every time I’ve switched away from it, I’ve missed it. If you want something free that syncs across different clients and works on the web, Inoreader’s free tier is pretty solid, but you can also just use a free RSS client that doesn’t sync if you’re only checking from one device. 

Think of RSS clients like third-party Twitter or Reddit clients; though these apps aren’t beholden to a CEO’s whims. They can plug into different RSS readers, and you can even have multiple services within one app. These apps also tend to be more tailored to the operating system they’re written for: Fiery Feeds and Unread for iOS both utilize some of the platform’s best features for an unmatched experience, and the same goes for FocusReader on Android, in my limited testing. Those clients aren’t free if you want all the features, but I also like Netnewswire on iOS and macOS, because it’s free and gets the basics right. It looks good, lets you easily plug in new feeds and organize them by category, and can also sync with third parties if you’d like (it’s just not required). Most will also give you a way to quickly send articles to your read-it-later service of choice, in case you don’t have time to finish an article when you find it. 

After that, all that’s left is picking out which feeds to subscribe to. Everyone’s different, but I recommend keeping your list short to start, and not worrying too much about things like breaking news and whatnot; that stuff has a tendency to reach us anyways. Instead, find the RSS feeds for sites that post things which peak your interest, whether that’s longform essays or updates about what’s new in the birding community. Most readers and clients make it easy to find the RSS feeds for websites by letting you type in the primary domain (nytimes.com, for example), and doing its own search, or having a database of known RSS feeds that people tend to follow. As a last resort, you can also use a third-party service like Zapier to generate your own RSS feed, though it’s a bit more effort.

You don’t have to limit your RSS feeds to articles, either: you can use third-party services to turn things like YouTube channels into personal RSS feeds, or create an email address that sends your newsletters straight to a feed, giving you one less reason to check your email. 

It’s not a perfect replacement for the ever-present algorithmic feed, but with a careful approach to curation and a reading experience that makes the whole thing enjoyable for you, RSS can be a respite from the onslaught of curated media that keeps our minds busy, rather than engaged. 

A reader’s starter pack

If you want the quickest way to try out RSS without having to spend any money, here are my favorite services and apps to give you the fullest experience without asking for your credit card info. 

  • Feedly is the most user-friendly RSS service with a free tier, but Inoreader’s free tier has better features for beginners and offers plenty for most people, since you can subscribe to up to 150 total RSS feeds. They’re both cross-platform, and work from both apps on iOS or Android, or via the web.

  • Netnewswire is a free, open source RSS client that can work as its own standalone app, or sync with a service like Inoreader. It’s not as customizable as some of the premium apps I recommend below, but nails all the fundamentals in a way that’s accessible to newcomers.

  • I’m a huge fan of read-it-later apps, because I rarely take time during my RSS browsing to read anything other than quick news hits (otherwise I’ll sink too much time into reading longer pieces). Once I’ve saved them, I know I’ll be able to revisit them when I’ve got the time, and I can search through my archive later when I want to link a friend to an article that’s been on my mind. Pocket’s the best free option as it syncs across every platform, but its best fonts are locked behind a monthly subscription, and its free tier limits the number of highlights you can have in the app.

Upgrade pack

Once you’ve found an RSS setup that works for you, you’ll have a better idea of what could make the experience better. This can include things like easier inclusion of newsletters and YouTube feeds, a better reading experience, more feeds, or read-it-later capabilities that don’t require a third-party. 

  • I’ve already mentioned Inoreader, but its premium tier unlocks features like filtered searches, so you can keep an eye on specific people, things, news events, or products, without having to do manual searches every time. It also provides an easier way to subscribe to newsletters, the ability to search for terms in feeds outside your subscription list, and get push notifications for specific sources. I also like Feedbin, which is simpler in its feature set, but it’s the only service that doesn’t require a third-party client to look its prettiest. It’s the one I’d use if my client of choice didn’t have its own feed-syncing.

  • If you’re only checking your feeds from Apple devices, Reeder, Fiery Feeds, and Unread are all excellent apps that beef up the experience in both aesthetics and functionality. They all offer their own feature sets, but generally, Reeder has the best balance of design and powerful features, Unread focuses on gestures and aesthetics, and Fiery Feeds packs a ton of features into a pretty good interface.

  • If you’re even slightly as neurotic about saving and catching up on articles as I am, you may benefit from a premium read-it-later service. Most of them offer upgrades like unlimited highlights and article dictation, as well as reading offline. I prefer Matter, which is unmatched in the overall reading experience, and lets me manage my reading list like my Spotify queue. It doesn’t have all the features of Readwise Reader, though, which adds things like ebook reading, plus the integration of AI to automatically generate summaries of any article in your stack; it also serves as its own standalone RSS feed reader, so you can do it all in one app. That’s a bit much for me, but if you take your notes in Notion, Readwise’s Swiss Army knife approach will probably be more your jam.

  • Speaking of Readwise, the company’s original service is a way to sync highlights from your read-it-later app (it works with Pocket, Instapaper, and Matter), Kindle, and other sources, into a centralized location that you can use to review them all, or sync to an external note-taking app like Obsidian. I’m a huge fan of it, as it sends me a daily digest of 5 highlights I’ve amassed over the years, and I can sort through them to find the ones I still want to store, and the ones I can toss. It’s subscription-based, but if you’re obsessive about your quotes and notes, it’s worth every penny.

📚 Good Reads:

Why baby boomers love the Kindle--and millennials don't (The Wall Street Journal): I’m no boomer, but I love my Kindle; without it, there’s no way I’d be able to read as much as I have this year. I’m too easily distracted to commit to one book before leaving the house, and I like to keep everything in a pretty small fanny pack, so a book usually doesn’t fit like my Kindle does. There’s more to its appeal than just the one-foot-in-the-past/one-foot-in-the-present design of the Kindle, too. As Perri Ormont Blumberg notes in this piece, for many it’s an accessibility tool:

Interestingly, the option to tap, not page-turn, is what sold Frances Spillane, 57, a Boston mental health counselor, on e-books. With arthritis in her hands, hard copies trigger pain; she can read a book on her iPad’s Kindle app more comfortably. And the e-reader app lets Spillane quickly search and access the large collection of therapy books she needs for work wherever she happens to be.

That’s been true for me, too. My memory’s always been pretty bad, but it’s been especially true since I got a concussion in the car accident. I do miss the days when I read paperbacks, jotted notes in the margins, and underlined quotes that stood out to me, but I can do most of that on my Kindle. Plus, it then syncs to my phone where I’m more likely to revisit it over a book on my shelf. Since I made that switch, I haven’t had to preface every mention of an article to friends with “I can’t remember where I heard this but….” 

Why are Citi Bike’s electric bikes always broken? (New York Magazine): For my first two and a half years living away from Tucson, I chose to try living without a car, and I loved it. Traveling by foot and public transportation helped me build a relationship with the cities I’d moved to, helping to meet people without getting weird messages from dudes on Bumble BFF. In that time, I learned to love getting around by bike, too. It’s faster, it’s a great workout, you can carry more stuff than when you’re walking, and nothing beats feeling the California air hitting your face as you bike along the beach. But it’s more than just a fun hobby or workout routine: it’s how people without cars get to work, their appointments, or home after a night out. That accessibility is crucial, especially in big cities, and e-bikes have made that even easier by providing a faster way to get around. They come with their own problems, though: 

When Lyft acquired Motivate, the parent company of Citi Bike, for $250 million in 2018, the city mandated that its e-bikes could only compose 20 percent of the fleet to ensure that affordable rides were always available. (E-bikes cost 26 cents more a minute or 17 cents with an annual membership). The problem is that most people want to ride the 5,000-plus e-bikes — this year, e-bikes are being ridden 50 percent of the time, triple the rate of pedal bike rentals. That number is only increasing; the six highest e-bike ridership days ever have been since late June, a 54 percent jump from 2022, and a new record was set on July 20, with nearly 70,000 rides.

🌐 Just Browsing:

📰 Friend of the newsletter James Austin has a new newsletter, Subsistence Content Farmer, where he rounds up all the links he shares in our friend’s Slack channel. I’d love it if you checked it out 🏠 Anne Helen Petersen wrote an interesting piece about how home ownership and the market gaze make us miserable 📶 An ode to cell phone numbers 🌄 Delusion can be its own kind of optimism ⛔ Naomi Klein on why ignoring RFK Jr. isn't an option 🫒 “Photo-dump culture and olive culture are connected” 🗓️ Late-in-the-day meetings are a bad idea 🚗 Cars are dangerous, so why do people love them? 💜 Hanif Abdurraqib has some beautiful things to say about grief 💔 How to deal when they break up with you out of the blue 🎵 In praise of the iRiver mp3 player. I never had one, but I was always jealous of the one my friend Matt flaunted in front of our iPod-toting pals 🐚 Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is on Showtime now, and you absolutely must see it. Not only is it as hilarious as it is heartfelt, it’s also a gorgeous story about approaching a challenge with grace

🔧 Toolkit:

  • Per a recommendation from David Pierce at The Verge, this video from ThisIsE might make you reconsider your home screen arrangement

  • My favorite note-taking app, Bear, just released version 2, and it’s great! It’s not as powerful as my previous app of choice, Obsidian, but it has a better writing experience and works better on iOS and iPadOS. If you want a beefed up version of Apple Notes, this is the app for you.

  • If you’re on macOS, try moving your dock to the left or right side of your monitor. I’ve been trying it out for about a month, and the extra screen real estate at the bottom has been a welcome change. 

  • What to do if you find out you’re being underpaid

👥 From the team:

💕 And now, here's something we hope you'll really like:

Here’s another cocktail recipe; this time, it’s my signature drink: Wake Me Up Before You Cocoa. I’ve been making it for people since 2020, and it’s never disappointed (other personal recipes definitely have). It’s like an espresso martini with way more flavor and wow factor. 

  • 1.5 oz dark rum (I love Denizen, but any will do if you can’t find that)

  • 0.25 oz orange liqueur (Gran Gala does the trick, but I enjoy Royale Orange)

  • 0.25 oz coffee liqueur (Mr. Black is my go-to, but when I can find St. George’s Nola Coffee Liqueur, I’ll pick that one every time)

  • 0.5 oz oat milk (if you can find a full-fat or barista edition, that works way better)

  • 5 dashes of Mexican Chocolate Bitters

  • 0.25 oz maple syrup (it sounds funky, just trust me on this one)

  • If you wanna add a little extra flair, pre-make some tiny pancakes you can stick a spear through as a garnish. People lose it for that. 

From Medea: You need to get on smut TikTok ASAP. I recently discovered the joys of spicy romance novels (aka smut), thanks to #booktok—I won’t be elaborating on just how Molly Doyle’s Scream For Us ended up on my FYP but here we are. Thankfully, Kindle Unlimited has precisely one million free options ranging in levels of spice and types of storylines. A years-long reading slump has been effectively destroyed by these tales of escapades that range from blush-inducing to straight up jaw dropping. My Instagram and TikTok DMS are open if you want to start a dirty book club.