It’s essential to curate what you read online. I’ll tell you how I do this, and even recommend some blogs and websites to follow, but first let me tell you why.
The Internet Isn’t In Kansas Anymore
RSS feeds used to be more popular. If you’re unfamiliar, an RSS feed is a delivery mechanism to send new website content or specific website page (e.g. blog posts from a particular author) to an “inbox” or “mailbox” specifically made for articles/posts you subscribe to. It’s Really Simple Syndication.
Instead of RSS feeds, most people rely on their social media algorithms to give them links to things to read.
But these algorithms have issues. They will suppress some ideological topics. They will recommend divisive issues to keep you scrolling. Musk’s Twitter is unpredictable, frowning upon external links (deprioritizing Substack especially) and smiling toward foreign government intervention.
In Canada, two new laws have made things even more crazy. First, the Liberal government’s new Online Streaming Act is getting bureaucrats involved in choosing what’s recommended, adding yet another “special interest” that isn’t you. And then Bill C-18 has made it far more difficult to share Canadian news, as Big Tech is refusing to abide by the law and therefore not paying money for sharing links (btw, I think the law was poorly written and has many issues… but that’s a different topic).
The internet is no longer about sharing knowledge but making money. There’s a witch in this wicked web, you might say. Let’s not lose our brains!
If you are going to read things on the internet, I humbly suggest that you intentionally source your material rather than rely on what pops up in your feed. Revive the RSS feed! And one way to do this is with Feedly. But you could also do this with bookmarks.
Using Bookmarks Instead Of Feeds?
This is an approach I use mostly for newspapers. You could theoretically do this for social media feeds, too.1
The underlying goal is to take ownership of where your eyes gaze. Do not scroll into mystery; gambling your time as a slot machine addict does with each lever pull. Take ownership. Read what you choose to read.
I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
Psalm 101:3
It is true, sure, you can improve a social media algorithm by diligently clicking, swiping, and eyeing only those things which you truly value. But I would argue (and I have argued in my TikTok post), that our system-one brains, with instantaneous reactions, are not our best selves, and so our algorithmic feeds suffer.
The success of Substack is largely a story of circumventing social media algorithms by giving users the articles they like directly into their email inboxes from authors they’ve chosen to follow. (Ironically, though, Substack now offers its own social media feed which defaults to an algorithm.) But you can “Substack-ify” almost all content on the internet through an app that turns your articles into an RSS feed.
Using Feedly To Be Your Article Inbox
Feedly is a software that has free and paid options. Go free.
Feedly is like the mailbox at the front of your house except you have the ongoing choice of which websites have permission to drop something into it. It’s your way of accessing your RSS feeds.
To get started with Feedly:
Go to https://feedly.com/
Click “Get Started”
Follow the prompts. But do not subscribe to any “feeds” that Feedly recommends after you tell Feedly your interests. Be disciplined!
Add the Feedly app to your phone, if you like reading on your phone.
That’s it.
You can also create folders based on your interests. Here are the folders that have worked for me:
Principles For Choosing Who/What To Follow
Before sharing with you who I think you could “add to your feed” using Feed, I’ve reflected on some general principles.
Consider how you feel about skimming. I think skimming is totally okay, especially for online articles, so I have a ton of authors that I subscribe to even though I don’t read every word. It’s up to you. Consider the tradeoffs either way.
Give writers more priority if they help you love Jesus and your neighbour better.
Give biblical thinkers more priority than cultural thinkers.
Give local thinkers more priority than global thinkers (e.g. I am much more interested in following Canadian bloggers than American, even if their quality isn’t as good).
Avoid tribalism yet also value recommendations from people you trust.
It’s okay to “try out” bloggers as long as you regularly cleanse your feed.
In general, institutions will provide higher quality articles with less false information than independent bloggers.
In general, avoid clickbait bloggers who only post about the latest thing.
In general, avoid contrarian bloggers who critique more than they endorse.
In general, avoid anonymous bloggers or bloggers with questionable reputations.
Okay, with all that aside now, here are those I’d recommend out of those I follow.
My Top Recommendations To Follow On Feedly
I’ll share my top recommended sites for each category based on the above-mentioned principles. I was going to share the rest, and I already wrote it up with links for a friend of mine, so if you’d like me to send you it all the feeds I follow just let me know and I’ll email you my full list.
To add a blog/website to your Feedly, click the icon with the +, then either paste the title of the blog or copy and paste the website URL. Either way should work.
Christian Living, in my definition, tends towards shorter and simpler articles or blogs.
Top nine:
The Gospel Coalition - link
Challies - Tim Challies - link
Gospel-Centered Discipleship - link
Desiring God - link
The Gospel Coalition | Canada - link
The Gospel Coalition | Australia - link
Ligonier - link
Write To Understand - Scott Hurst - link - (Canada)
Dashhouse - Darryl Dash - link (Canada)
Christian Thinking tends toward more academic and longer articles.
Top four:
Tech Thinking is for writers, Christian or not, who critique and reflect on technology.
Top four:
The Convivial Society - L. M. Sacasas - link
Digital Liturgies - Samuel D. James - link
Terms of Service with Chris Martin - link
WeeklyTech - Jason Thacker - (email subscription only) - link
Christian Leading is very similar to Christian Living, though articles tend toward church leadership.
Top Three:
Christian History is one I created just recently because Michael Haykin posts A LOT of stuff and he kind of deserved his own category.
Historia ecclesiastical - Michael A. Haykin - link (Canada)
DTK is my Kitchener-related News (the city where I live). This is primarily non-Christian news, opinions, and events that are going on locally that I like to keep track of. Obviously, these are all Canadian.
Top Four
TL;WR - Alex Kinsella - link
Citified - Melissa Bowman - link
The Community Edition - link
My local neighbourhood association
Other Caveats and Comments
I slowly built this list over time. And my habit of skimming articles isn’t something that can be said to cultivate patience or other virtues.
Also, it should go without saying that I don’t believe every single word of what other people have written. But alas, it needs to be said so I’ve said it.
Books are better than articles seven times out of ten.
My approach is to scan through around 10 to 50 articles every few days and then linger and read in full the articles that stand out. I also vary my scanning approach based on the website. For example, I scan the title and first paragraph of every Gospel Coalition article. But for Mere Orthodoxy articles, I slow down and read each sentence of the first paragraph or two. Sometimes I let Feedly’s algorithm tell me what’s most popular in my Culture, Leadership, and Tech general folders (it works for lower-value stuff).
I wrote all this with a friend of mine in mind who asked me about it. Hopefully helpful for you, too!
For example, let’s say you enjoy the Facebook posts of Wyatt, Michael, and Darryl. Instead of waiting for Facebook’s algorithm to tell which of their posts are worth your viewing, simply bookmark their pages, and then you decide when to read them.
This is great stuff. I discovered RSS in... man, I don’t know, 2004-5 or so? I thought Google Reader was amazing and it was an incredibly stupid decision to shut it down. I tried a few others after that but eventually ended up on Feedly, where I started with an exported file of all my feeds from Reader.
Thanks for this post. You’re in Kitchener? I’m about an hour west to you near London.