Digital Hoarder

So I’m subscribed to a lot of RSS feeds. When Google stopped their support to it… that was a sad day. But when Feedly picked that up… it was a good day. Currently using the Newsify app in my iPhone to read through all my RSS feeds.

When I analyse my habit using Newsify. Most of the time I just skim through an article to see if it’s interesting or not. When it seems so I read it, but when its a long one. I just use the quick share option and sent it to Pocket (formerly Read It Later). I’ve been doing this for years now. Also have the Pocket app of course. And when I have more time I use that to read those articles of interest. Nothing wrong with this habit. Or this way of gathering news and information. Seems faster then manually visiting all those websites one by one.

So when I got the new MacBook, one of the first app I installed was Pocket for OSX. Smooth download and install. But what shocked me was when I launched the app…so many unread articles…(in the thousands…) At that point I realised I was being a digital article hoarder! I’ve really gathered a lot of articles in these years that I wanted to read and never had the time to really read them.

So the last couple of days… no weeks… I’ve read a lot. Article after article. It feels good. To finally do the things I wanted to do. But at some point I also realise that most of the old articles where out of date and at no more interest. But still read them, so wasting time and energy right? Anyways there where also some articles, where I had real doubt on why I like them in the first place? Because when I read them… I really didn’t like them at all and putting them in the trash can was the right thing to do.

I ask myself now is: why did I chose to Pocket those articles at the first place? Was it my skimming habit of reading the headline and the first few sentences? Or is it something else? That’s the me at that thought it was interesting. And the me now…doesn’t see it at interesting at all. So did I changed that much? I guess so. Perspective changes in time. With habits, preferences and way of thinking all being malleable and not a solid unworkable metal thing.

So looking to my future self and asking what will happen or will I be doing next year? Or the year after it? Hello nice to meet you future me. This is the current me. What advice would you give me? Not that I would take it, because the me I know is kinda stubborn. Hmm topic went to a weird place. But to be honest would you take advice from your future self? Don’t do thing “A” because it will lead to thing “B”. But what about thing “C” the experience that you get from that decision? The thing called life, feelings and memories. So in this line of thinking, would you go back in time to change certain decisions that you made when you were younger? What impact would it have on the current you? I don’t know to be honest. I have some regrets on certain things. But then again those regrets led to some other things and decisions which where good. As it turns out. Anyways my advice to the current and future me: don’t skim through to much articles and auto Pocket them. Try to read them now, when they are current and relevant. I saves time and energy in the long way…

So what now? The current me is going to read some more “pocketed” articles. My aim is to finish them all. One way or another.

 

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