Why Use RSS in 2020?

This is an RSS only post. Check out the RSS Club to learn about the (open) secret.

Remember how Google killed RSS and nobody uses it anymore?

Yeah. Not so much. But I’m preaching to the choir.

Creating an RSS only post is easy enough in Jekyll.

As 2020 grinds on and we slip further into social media filter bubbles (Outrage! Everyone else is stupid!), RSS hearkens back to what the internet had the potential to be.

I subscribe to about 100 blogs. Most of them are very amateurish. They’re labors of love about a bunch of random interests. They aren’t SEO optimized, not professional content churned out every week. Instead I get to read the honest thoughts of interesting people around the world.

I don’t have to open a minefield of social media to follow someone via RSS. I get each piece of content tucked away to be read whenever is convenient for me. With the social media model, I’m hit with FOMO and only shown content with “engagement”. Ugh.

So here’s to the rise of RSS and all it stands for from the old internet: fun, informative, weird, encouraging thoughts from regular people.