Yes, yes, I know it's a feed aggregator, but alligator is much more fun.
Thus far, the Skokie 10 Things are proving a sort of Rorschach test that surfaces my innate cynicism about many things Web-related. In this instance, a program that collates new information from various websites seemed uninteresting to me because... well... I don't typically find many websites interesting or helpful. Online, I tend to check my email and then that's pretty much it.
But once again, pondering applications of RSS beyond personal use opens up new possibilities, not only of transcending my solipsism but also recognizing how these alligators might prove helpful for libraries. I particularly like the idea of RSS feeds that advertise new materials that the library procures. In this way, a patron could subscribe to a feed that feeds their particular interests: whether new movies, mystery books, philosophy texts, or what have you.
And even the Web-adverse me managed to find five feeds to subscribe to--among these are the newspaper from my hometown (so as to keep up with all the excitement of Grand Rapids, MI, and have something to talk to my mother about!), a feed from Amnesty International to remind me of the derogations of life that unfortunatley abound, and the personal blog of a rather prolific friend of mine whom I'm terrible at keeping up with. So, perhaps--just perhaps--all of this will increase my use and thus estimation of that most famous invention of Al Gore's: the internet.
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3 comments:
"transcending my solipsism"...I love it!
Though it could be argued that these technologies help to further solidify one's solipsism, in the sense that it brings together all of the things one uses to define their own Internet world.
Of course, if you choose to interact with said blogs, perhaps continuing a long-running conversation, you can break that wall.
But what if you wouldn't talk to those people unless you had them in your feeder?
Ow, my brain hurts. Let's hear it for the epistemology of RSS feeds!
Toby
"keep up with all the excitement of Grand Rapids, MI"...i think you might be the first person to ever write those words
Toby,
"The epistemology of RSS feeds": good stuff! I suppose it is also the sociological epistemology of RSS feeds, as it changes how we interact with people and groups. And yet, the internet itself is a major sociological shift, allowing one to lead an incredibly insular life while purportedly connecting one in greater breadth (depth?) to others. Granted this first shift, does it make a difference whether one visits someone else's website or has it fed into their RSS? Is going to someone's website/blog an encounter with otherness? Perhaps it is akin to going to someone else's house to converse rather than having that person always come to you. And yet, the underlying question is how do we ever get beyond the self, which is epistemically necessary, to a genuine encounter with the other? And once again, metaphysics (including that of cyberspace) seems to reduce to epistemology, which is the philosophical trap I've been wallowing in most of my adult life.
How deep does the rabbit hole go??
Rich,
Maybe I can get a trademark on my words about GR, then? They could be an integral part of a comedic novel someday...
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