Push v. Pull

RSS is a funny thing. On the one hand, it's amazing, and allows me to read the 103-and-counting different news sources that I monitor every day. On the other hand, it converts a formerly active mechanism ("I think I'm in the mood for classical music commentary today") to a fairly passive one ("Oh, there are twenty new articles on food. I'd better go read them.") In the process, it becomes addictive in sort of the same way that TV is: effortless 'information,' delivered hexihourly [I know, I just made that word up]. I don't really agree with those traditional journalists who denounce blogs everywhere as useless and shallow, particularly because this RSS phenomenon happens with news stories and blog posts alike. Maybe, in fact, this phenomenon is what drives the increase in content creation at the edges, coupled with the increases in ease of producing semi-professional results enabled by technology. People just get bored of consuming other people's pushed content and go make their own, or remix whatever others have produced. Not that boredom is a new phenomenon, but boredom in an activity that couples you to the computer might be. I know I used to get bored with playing games back in the pre-Doom and immediately post-Doom eras and write some code instead.

--Ari