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The spring of 2014 is bringing about a lot of change for me. Not only have I started attending master's level classes in an online program, but now I have to overcome my technology anxiety for a class. I will be honest, I'm still confused about all these things that I just heard about in conversation or overheard on a cable-news outlet. There are so many questions that ran through my mind and through my keyboard: Which RSS reader program should I install? Which one works best with MAC? Am I actually downloading the appropriate software? Opps, no it's just an advertisement and thus I have wasted several moments of my time only to delete this possibly virus plagued program from my computer.
I can say that I know have a better idea of what that funny orange symbol represents. It's really a challenge to be a functional computer illiterate and yet to perform basic computer related tasks without having a clear explanation of what I'm actually doing. It's almost like my adventure in Dubai, walking around an Arabic speaking country, where most signs are in English and Arabic, yet only being able to read one side. Or my favorite, going to the movies where the subtitles are in Arabic and French and having to translate the French because I was unable to clearly hear the dialogue in English. However I survived and realized that one can function being half confused but it is far better to take the time to overcome your anxieties and take on a new task, for me it's learning to operate online systems.
And so here I am learning through trial and error how to add an RSS Feed and how to determine the difference between a blog, podcast, and a simple news listing. RSS - Really Simple Syndication or pulling out the latest written content on those subjects of great interest. This doesn't mean that the content published online isn't available for plagiarization but is available for republishing. I like to think of it in old fashion terms: You are a 16 year old girl who tears an article out of YM or Seventeen Magazine and post it on the inside of your locker for others to read. The article still has the indication that it was published from an established magazine, however you have attached it to your locker because you find the information valuable and wish to share it with others. RSS follows the same idea and enables the reader to narrow their focus on topics of higher priority.
The most challenging issue is to discover how to locate RSS Feeds that aren't clearly identified or utilize an RSS Reader different from the one you just spent 4-8 minutes downloading. Many RSS Readers are attached to a search engine service such as Excite, Google, and Yahoo. To be honest creating an RSS Feeder isn't the hardest step in Blogger. The hardest thing is to not second guess yourself and assume that you aren't doing something correct.
