The happiness of learning something new: what is RSS, anyway?

One of my happiness-project resolutions is “Learn how to do something new,” and I’ve had several readers email me to ask about RSS and Feedblitz updates. As happiness experts explain, “learning something new” is an excellent way of boosting happiness – though it usually means an uncomfortable period of frustration and discouragement, too. If you’re in the mood to “learn something new,” in this case about RSS and other ways of “subscribing” to blogs, read on:

Wondering what the heck RSS is?
RSS stands for “Real Simple Syndication.” If you’ve been mystified about that orange box with the white curves that appears on blogs everywhere, that’s the most common button for RSS sign-up. I have no idea how RSS actually works, but that doesn’t matter, because it’s actually easy to use.

This is how I think about it: Visiting a blog is like buying a magazine at a newsstand; using RSS is like getting a home subscription (except RSS is free) -- you read the same content, and it’s delivered to you directly on your RSS reader.

RSS is handy if you read a lot of blogs. If you find yourself with a long list of favorite blogs to jump amongst, or if you follow a certain industry so need to check in with various sites periodically, or if you want to keep a list of blogs you like so you won’t forget one, RSS is very handy.

To use RSS, you need to sign up for an RSS reader – e.g., Google Reader (which I use), Bloglines. Then, when you want to add a blog to your list, you sign up to get updates through RSS (to use the magazine metaphor, to get the latest issue). After that, whenever that blog has new content, it’s sent to your reader. When you feel like catching up on your reading, you can go to your reader, and everything is updated, organized, and waiting for you.

Even though I have an RSS reader, sometimes I go to the actual blogs. One downside of using RSS is that you just get the update (much like getting a blog update into your email, see below). Sometimes it’s fun to go to the blog and see the whole site. On my blog, I have a lot of material in the sidebars that doesn’t show up in an RSS reader or in Feedblitz.

The upside of using an RSS reader is that you can zip through a lot of content very fast. It’s a very good way of organizing your reading.

If you want to try RSS, first sign up for a reader (e.g., Google Reader, Bloglines). Once you have a reader, you follow the instructions for adding a particular blog to your list. Lots of sites have buttons that show that they have RSS feeds available. The most common one is the orange box with white waves, like the one at the top-left-hand corner of my blog, but there are many others as well.

You can click the RSS button and follow the instructions, or paste in the URL of the blog you want to follow or the URL of its feed. It depends on your situation. When you’re doing it, this is a lot less confusing than it sounds.

I’m not very tech savvy myself, and I hesitated a long time before using a reader. Fortunately, it’s one of those tools that turns out to be fairly easy to use, once you get started. One day, I just held my nose, signed up, and fiddled around until I figured it out. But don’t feel like an idiot if it’s a bit awkward at first. It took me a while to get comfortable on it.

Want to use email instead?
Now, maybe you don’t feel like “Learning something new” and dealing with RSS, but you like the idea of getting updates. With many blogs, like this one, you can sign up to get updates sent to you though email. If you’d like to do that with this blog, go to the upper-right-hand corner of this blog and sign up through the Feedblitz box. (Never fear, you can unsubscribe any time, and I would never share the list.) Thousands of people use this method to get my blog updates, and it’s very handy if you like to route material through your email in-box.

Be warned, however: lately I’ve been having a problem with Typepad that means that people are getting duplicative Feedblitz emails. I’m working HARD to get this resolved, and Typepad is working on it, so I hope this problem will be fixed soon. If you’re annoyed by getting the extra emails, please bear with me! If you like the idea of email updates, but don’t want to get one every day, you can sign up for my monthly newsletter, which is a round-up of the best material from the previous month.

A lot of people complain about getting too many emails. If you feel that way, an advantage of RSS is that it allows you to get targeted updates outside your email.

That's everything I know about RSS. As I say, I'm no tech expert. Please add a comment if there's anything that I've explained poorly or am just flat wrong about.

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My RSS reader includes Cognitive Daily -- it highlights interesting studies that I might otherwise miss. Today, for example, it describes a study about babies using sign language. This subject interests me, because we used baby sign language with both our daughters, and it's FANTASTIC! It's absolutely amazing to be able to communicate with your baby. The first time the Big Girl did the sign for "hungry"...I almst fainted.

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Interested in starting your own Happiness Project? If you’d like to take a look at my personal Resolutions Chart, for inspiration, just email me at grubin, then the “at” sign, then gretchenrubin dot com. No need to write anything more than “Resolutions Chart” in the subject line.

Comments

[Lovelyn]

Learning something new everyday is a great goal. I tend to learn something new everyday even when I don't want to:)

I RSS more than 50 blogs. It's way too much for me to keep track of, but when I do get around to reading them I learn a lot and have a good laugh too.

[jane]

Is this the ignore-it-and-it-will-go-away method of dealing with criticism?

[Shanel Yang]

Subscribing to a blog's RSS feed is a lot like subscribing to your favorite magazines or newspapers, but it's free! And, it doesn't pile up on your coffee table. Nor do you have to throw it out. You can just: (1) read the "headlines" or "titles" of each post whenever you want; (2) select the posts you want to read, if any; and, then, (3) click the "mark all as read" button on Your Google Reader to clear your "inbox." (All this'll become clear if you follow the instructions after clicking on the RSS button.) I invite all readers to come check out my blog at http://shanelyang.com/blogs/articles/ and consider subscribing to my RSS feed if you're interested. My setup is not as lovely as Gretchen's, but I do my best to provide helpful information that will hopefully increase your happiness, too! : )

[cynthia]

why on earth should anybody read your blog if readers are treated so shabbily--deleted and then stonewalled? i've never seen anything like this. a simple explanation or apology might have cleared this up quickly--but now your readers are getting insulted.

[Todd HellsKitchen]

I've been using Bloglines for years, and LOVE it.... And you've been on my subscription list there ever since I discovered your blog!

[Christopher]

This is probably my favorite explanation of what RSS is:

RSS in plain english - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

I use it all the time at work and people love it!

[kathy]

I use RSS to subscribe to all kinds of news feeds so I know when there is new content on my favorite blogs - like this one.

I use the reader to see what's new and then go directly to the website. The reader is just so generic - I prefer the creativity and individuality of everyone's websites.

Learning new things is fantastic. I can't imagine a day where I don't learn something.

[Nicole]

Google Reader is my RSS reader of choice... but do you know about the "next" feature? - in the "goodies" section of the settings, you can drag a firefox bookmark to your toolbar - and just hit next to visit each unread post. In almost all cases, all the sidebar info stays... you're visiting the actual blog :)

[Fitness Surfer]

Your title couldn’t have been more appropriate for my day today. I just spent an hour having “The Hubby” help me figure out the RS feed for my sight. I also let readers subscribe by email. I still don’t have an RS reader my self and only subscribe to feed if I can do it via email. It’s just the way I am. Id rather organize all my info in one place, rather then having to check my email, and then my RS feed. - Krystal

[molly]

Thanks for the how-to.

[Sophia]

Dear Gretchen,

I have been enjoying this blog and recommended it to several of my friends. I thought your post and the ensuing discussion about a mother's letter (Jan 2, 2009) was very interesting and helpful to me, as I also have a narcissistic mother. As I didn't have time to finish reading the comments, I made a note so that I could return and read through the discussion carefully. I was very surprised to learn that you have deleted some of the most insightful comments without explanation or apology to the readers who spent their time writing in.

Gretchen, I hope that you will find time in 2009 to write a post explaining your policy on deleting reader contributions to your blog. It feels a bit like being part of a lively group conversation and having someone suddenly start preventing others from speaking and acting as if healthy disagreement doesn't exist within the group. I find this a bit disorienting for a blog on happiness, and it's something that can be remedied easily by reflecting on your actions, deciding how you will act in the future when readers disagree with your interpretations, and then posting to let us know what you decide. That way, we readers can decide whether we want to continue reading your blog. I am certainly not going to subscribe to your RSS feed before this issue is addressed.

Please: "Do what ought to be done."

[Gretchen Rubin]

Hello from Gretchen -- check out this post:

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2009/01/in-which-i-addr.html

I addresse the deletion issue there. Zoikes!

[Jonathan - Advanced Life Skills]

When the learning stops boredom sets in because life grows progressively less interesting. We were designed to find joy and satisfaction in growing our conscious awareness and understanding. Learning is how we feed the process. When you see the delight a young child experiences as they learn something new, we appreciate the potential happiness from a life of learning. Nice article.

[Rose]

Thanks for the info, Gretchen. I subscribe to about a dozen blogs, mostly close friends. I use Windows Sidebar, a great little tool that comes with Vista, that I use to store various gadgets, like a calendar and my RSS feed. It's always there on my desktop so it's quite handy. I don't have to join yet another site like google reader or bloglines and I don't have to then go to the site to read. It's really a great tool, shows updated posts, you can click to go the blog, etc. Nifty!

[Timothy Smith]

Gretchen

As always, useful information.

I recently started a blog and had to check to see if it had RSS access(it does).

For those interested in EXCELLENT Quotes, with a different spin, visit the Smile-Therapy Think Tank

http://Smile-TherapyThinkTank.blogspot.com/

Keep up the outstanding work Gretchen!

[brittanie f]

I definitely agree. Baby sign language rocks! I watch these videos everyday: http://www.mindbites.com/person/84-MySmartHands

[Liara Covert]

People also exist who manage smooth transitions bewteen older and newer endeavours. Not everyone experiences frustration and fear between projects. Some people have evolved to know what it is like to create "smooth sailing." That is, they realize happiness is a journey and joy is created within, wherever you happen to be. Anyone can learn this. It is a state of mind.

[Kirsten]

Consider telling your readers about RSS aggregators in future posts. I'm a blog-skimming fiend, and services such as feedhub.com track your propensity to open links, per topic, per a link's popularity, and per blogger, and send them to you in its own feed. It's a lifesaver when I don't have time to log in for a few days and my reader's stuffed full. Also, organizing feeds by subject is highly useful for those times you're in the mood to read about a certain topic and not be washed over by all of your feeds mixed together. Mine are in categories such as "nutrition", "marketing", "self-improvement", "politics", "entertainment" etc.
Love your project - all your posts make my aggregator's feed "cut"!