rfmcdonald | [LINK] "Google Reader's demise not end-all" (Reply)

The San Francisco Chronicle's James Temple doesn't think that the impending demise of Google Reader will doom RSS feeds, but also doesn't think RSS feeds are that relevant.

Eric Goldman, law professor at Santa Clara University, [. . .] argued that this blow to RSS, which feeds you news directly instead of forcing you to seek it out, enhances the troubling tendency of people to gravitate to Internet echo chambers, where they encounter only voices and opinions that support their own.

"Without an RSS reader as reliable and efficient as Google Reader, my information flows will be lower-volume, slower, more heavily intermediated by third-party algorithms, and - as the dystopians predicted - less diverse," he wrote.

I agree with Goldman that this is a dangerous trend that's already created a far more polarized society, where each side of debates now feels entitled not just to their own opinion, but their own set of facts.

But I don't think the death of one product or even one technology would notably worsen this.

For starters, RSS may or may not be in that much trouble. There are already plenty of popular products that use it, like Flipboard, Feedly and Pulse, and probably some more on the way.

That alone addresses a big part of this.

But ultimately I think RSS matters a lot less in the age of social media, as anyone can follow their favorite writers and publications directly on Twitter and, to some degree, Facebook.

Goldman addressed this, saying he believes social media simply doesn't work as well for news: "I already use it extensively as a complement to RSS, but it's scattershot and much slower to read."

But I actually think it's better. I dropped Google Reader long ago as I found it far easier - and much more entertaining - to use Twitter as my news feed. In addition to seeing what my favorite writers post, I immediately spot breaking and trending stories by people I never knew to follow. I also get to interact with them, posing questions or posting counterpoints.