Since using Brave RSS/News I have become less addicted to RSS feeds. It has to do with how it operates.
With the old NewsBlur RSS reader when I got a new RSS story it would notify me and then looking for a hit of dopamine in something new and fresh, I would rush over and see if it was something interesting. Brave News doesn’t do this. It doesn’t notify me when there is new content. It just adds everything into one superfeed and then I can browse through that at my leisure.
The positive thing has been that I have been reading the RSS less and since I wasn’t getting notifications all the time, didn’t feel any pressure to read at any particular schedule. I hate notifications and feeling like a slave, but I made myself a slave to RSS and new information. How strange that we do things that we don’t want because we don’t think them through.
Perhaps the same desire to understand the latest info can also be a negative influence. One of the teachers in my life said that I go to extremes. I was stunned when they said that. It is easy to justify the way that we behave, but it takes courage to look inside yourself and ask yourself honestly if what you are doing helps or hurts you.
Knowing this is helpful, but feeling anxious about missing out isn’t helpful. One of the downsides of having the Internet is that instead of satisfying our fear of missing out, it has only increased it. I will need to think about this a little more to see if things like using an RSS reader are helpful things to do.
Life helps you learn what makes you happy. I am happy reading RSS feeds less.