It's a nifty thing, the RSS Reader. One more step in consumer-driven news and entertainment. What is good about this, I think, is that it allows for more specialization and diversification of interest and opinions. At the same time, I wonder if the end result will be toward greater polarization in our society.
What I mean by this is that the media has often served to unify the culture, be it "official" news reports, popular songs and music, sporting events, etc. To a large degree, the population submitted itself to the authority of the writers, photographers, and editors...and ran the risk of seeing or reading something they might not (initially) be interested in and/or agree with. An average newspaper or magazine has many articles, on many different subjects.
If I can pick and choose most (or all) of my sources, however, I can more or less continue to be fed only stuff I like, by people who (more or less) see things the way I do. I am not sure that this will lead to much personal growth, or the type of citizen best suited for democracy...or life in a diverse society.
Educationally, however, we may be able to use this tool to the student's advantage, if we ourselves are careful. We could promote/ require students to subscribe to a certain range of feeds, especially during a particular course or unit, and have them make use of it during class discussion and in their own studies. We have to be careful here to not "feed" them only our favorites...or ones that only coincide with one particular viewpoint.
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