Defining my Why with RSS Reading
In 2 words, it’s my worldview relevance.
Clicked open the “Explore” part of my Google Reader this morning, and saw my own trends for the first time… just never clicked that part before:
From your 164 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 566 items, clicked 78 items, starred 6 items, shared 0 items, and emailed 0 items.
*As a bit of explanation: I don’t ‘share’ or ‘email’ from my Reader, for that’s essentially how I use Tumblr instead. However I think I should use those handy links more too, for the individual recommendations I’ll email people.
Pretty cool, this tracking by Google magic. It got me thinking about my habits, and how I read what I read. How much, how often and why. Especially since I’m newly using Goodreads to track my book reading (I’ve set a goal there to read 36 books in 2011, and am on my 6th and 7th- 1 fiction, 1 non-fiction).
“Read more books, and less other fluff stuff” is the advice we usually get, and I largely agree, for I do believe book reading is where the learning void deepens into this black hole for adults: There are far too many people who haven’t picked up a book to read since they were in school. I once had a manager ask me, “Why should I read old stuff when I see all the new stuff on the evening news?”
Yikes. Which brings me back to RSS reading. It’s not old versus new either: There’s a different distinction.
Books, for me, represent learning. RSS Reading culls relevance.
As much as I evangelize blogging, blogs represent quick, emotional publishing that’s very different from the writing and evolutionary editing patience necessary with writing a good book worth any reader’s time. When you buy a book, you expect to receive the value of that evolutionary edit.
So what’s the value of all those blogs in my Reader? I think of them as representing the pulse of my worldview laboratory. They hint to the simmering concerns and emotion swirling around me. And the “my worldview” distinction is an important one, for I’m the one responsible for creating my world.
And each RSS subscription has its own why too. As a writer, both of blogs and books, this is where my personal value of responsibility kicks in. If you subscribe to, or read anything I write, thank you. I promise I’ll do everything I can to keep honoring your attention, especially with constant diligence in positive expectancy.
Archive Aloha: Why is always a loaded question, isn’t it!
