push vs pull systems have been on my mind
I’ve been fed up with social media for a while. I left Facebook years ago, never really joined Twitter, much less X, and stopped using Instagram months ago.
But YouTube was my last connection to the algo-dictated mind, and I knew it had to go. I saw myself queueing videos and then getting distracted while they played, which I suspected was adding to my overall feeling of overwhelm. I also knew doing this more often was a burnout warning sign, from experience.
And then the idea popped into my head, the answer to my woes: RSS.
Good old RSS, something seemingly so old-school that even support specialists may not know what it is when asked (if you’re one of these people, here’s a great explainer).
Getting all my reads centralized was step one. That was already awesome!
I was using this cute little app called Feeed on iOS, which I recommend if you’re looking for a feed reader that doesn’t charge a subscription or spy on you.
Stayed like that for a few months, and then knew the YouTube issue meant I needed to go further. Also, I’d been hating my phone more and more, so I was often not even reading my news or blogs consistently.
Ultimately, I was zeroing in on what I actually wanted — to control my media consumption, away from algos, ads, and co monopolizing my attention and mental energy.
I went looking for a new Obsidian plugin, and struck gold when I found RSS Dashboard — an *amazing plugin I highly recommend*.
Migrated everything I actually want to consume there, which forced me to review my subs — there is no algorithm, which forces me to actually think about the people I want to follow, otherwise I’ll end up with a polluted feed! And given I was centralizing video, audio, and text in one place, I needed to maintain a manageable stream to be able to keep on top of it.
Ended up with everything sorted into folders (clicking on a folder opens all items in it, so it doubles as a topic grouping, so your brain doesn’t explode):
And then, once i had all i wanted in my new dashboard, i went on a rampage:
- phone cleanup: Newspaper app, podcasts, youtube, RSS feed app
- email cleanup: interesting newsletters moved to RSS feed, removed all newsletters from email
- subscriptions cancelled: Youtube premium, buh-bye
Speaking of YouTube, they were actually the catalyst for it all, when they recently emailed all users about yet another subscription price increase, which would now bring me close to 20 euros a month just so I could skip ads and lock my phone while listening to a podcast.
That is not nearly enough value. Nope, no way.
Turns out I don’t need a subscription — I’m actually way better off without one! I now only get videos via RSS from channels I love. Then, when opening YouTube in the browser, I installed these onto Brave:
… and profit off an experience that actually delivers premium value, for free.
Immediately I saw a whole set of changes:
- It became routine to consume media exclusively on my laptop
- Less aversion to my phone, due to fewer notifications and fewer distraction-pit apps to get lost in
- Most days I catch up on news fully these days (I inbox-zero the RSS dashboard, basically), and I have QuickAdd set up so I can easily create a blog post draft from an article if it sparks an idea (it’s often how they happen for me, anyway)
- Getting informed feels not only less overwhelming, but productive now, especially because I actively write down ideas sparked by the media I’m consuming — ultimately it helps me think rather than distracting me from my thoughts (neurospicy peeps will get it)
- Overall, happier and less stressed. Not joking. Controlling my exposure has been the best thing I could do for myself, as someone anxious. If I control the exposure, I don’t risk as much energy and emotional toll just trying to catch up on the news of the day, so I’m more likely to do it consistently. Very much a snowball-effect kind of thing.
Anyway, moral of the story: if it sounds interesting to you, try it. It’s not for everyone, but it sure as hell was the best change in routine I’ve made for myself recently.
