Someone on NetNewsWire’s Discourse site recently asked, “How to find motivation for reading feeds?” Below was my response.
As a longtime RSS addict, this question reads to me like “how can I start smoking cigarettes?”
I was nigh-endlessly scrolling newsfeeds before I was endlessly scrolling social media, so in some ways they’re the same to me. But what sucks me into social media more than my newsreader are the notifications. Notifications ends up making social media a destination about me as much or more than a place to stay up on news, friends and my interests. I really should turn more of them off. One of my worst app habits is to always agree to turn them on under the belief that I’ll turn them off if I dislike them (except I never do the second part).
My FOMO and strong opinions have never really allowed me be a passive participant on social media, but the engagement carrot and stick are hollow. I get about as much fake engagement as real, but both send real notifications that short circuit my brain’s ability to focus.
But like others have said, your biggest motivation to read feeds will come from blocking out the other places you would have received similar information. Video killed the radio star, and all that stuff.