#08: RSS Feeds

I created an online Bloglines account and subscribed to several newsfeeds. I followed the "Using Bloglines Tutorial" for what seemed like hours. I wasn't really up for the optional challenge to provide the URL to my public bloglines account ... However, I finally figured it out and here is the link: http://www.bloglines.com/public/Mechael. The website must have changed as the instructions for finding this information were not helpful. Also, Feedster continues to be unavailable so I could not complete that part of the "Using Bloglines Tutorial" assignment.

Our assignment was to blog about this exercise. I have plenty to "blog" about. There was a charming little "p.s." on this exercise that said, "Once you tackle this discovery exercise, you've tackled the most difficult one of the whole 23. :)." I hope they weren't kidding because this one almost did me in! I found this to be extremely difficult and frustrating despite all of the helpful (and not so helpful) discovery resources. I vote for mandatory standardization of RSS feed buttons!

Really and truly I didn't find much I liked about RSS and newsreaders. Okay, I eventually figured out how to add links, but like Library Leaper, I had more trouble actually finding feeds that were of interest to me. This will be useful for tracking library-related blogs but I doubt I will be using this technology in my personal life -- we'll see. Because I feel like I'm on the computer all day, I have no desire to be on the computer at night "for fun" and social networking. By the end of my day, I am tried of receiving information, responding to information, and dealing with information.

Sorry but I find the basic assumption asserted at the beginning of this particular exercise to have a major flaw ("technology makes life easier"). Technology is cool, but in my experience it makes life even more complicated!