The way we consume content on the internet is increasingly driven by walled-garden platforms and black-box feed algorithms. This shift is making our media diets miserable. Ironically, a solution to the problem predates algorithmic feeds, social media and other forms of informational junk food. It is called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and it is beautiful. What the hell is RSS? RSS is just a format that defines how websites can publish updates (articles, posts, episodes, and so on) in a standard feed that you can subscribe to using an RSS reader (or aggregator). Don’t worry if this sounds extremely uninteresting to you; there aren’t many people that get excited about format specifications; the beauty of RSS is in its simplicity. Any content management system or blog platform supports RSS out of the box, and often enables it by default. As a result, a large portion of the content on the internet is available to you in feeds that you can tap into. But this time, you’re in full control of what you’re receiving, and the feeds are purely reverse chronological bliss. Coincidentally, you might already be using RSS without even knowing, because the whole podcasting world runs on RSS.
    • plenipotentprotogod@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      14 days ago

      TBH I just use the Feeder app on my phone. Fully self-contained. No account, no server, no middleman of any kind. Just the app.

      I’ve been meaning to set up something more elaborate, but this really does work fine, and I like to mention it in these threads for anyone who’s interested in RSS but thinks it’s a big lift to set up. It can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Download an app and start adding publications that interest you. That’s all it takes to get started.

      • freeman@feddit.orgEnglish
        2·
        13 days ago

        Don’t forget to backup your subscriptions. Its really easy, it just generates a opml textfile, which every other reader could import.

    • Jack_Burton@lemmy.caEnglish
      9·
      14 days ago

      I use Feeder on android from fdroid. It was like a breath of fresh air going through a list of things I’m interested in, reading articles, and not getting sucked into the comments because there just aren’t any.

      Added bonus, its very limited so there’s no doom scrolling, and refreshing the feed only updates with something new like every few hours. Spend a lot less time on my phone now.

    • mbirth 🇬🇧@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      14 days ago

      News Explorer on macOS, iOS and ipadOS. Syncs everything, so whatever device you pick up, you can continue reading where you left off. Also supports following people on Mastodon and YouTube channels via RSS.

    • 001Guy001@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4·
      14 days ago

      I use Feedbro on Firefox. It allows you to create rules for feeds with specific checks/actions (for example to filter out items that contain specific words)

    • Alex@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      13 days ago

      I have paid for Newsblur ever since they cancelled Google Reader. I also use elfeed on various emacs instances for project and update feeds of various types.

    • Lem453@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      13 days ago

      FreshRSS self hosted. Just navigate to the website in your browser, install it to android via a browser ‘app’. Assign the app to a gesture.

      Now i swipe from the left and my RSS opens. Fully self hosted with no tracking beyond the websites you visit.

    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.orgEnglish
      3·
      14 days ago

      I use it for podcasts, the app is gPodder but doesn’t require a gPodder account. It does have a search function though.

    • kazerniel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      13 days ago

      Paying for Newsblur’s hosted version - I need its keyword filtering feature and I like to support small companies :)