Again to Fundamentals With Electronic mail and RSS

Over the previous couple of weeks I’ve fielded a whole lot of emails from readers who’re questioning if they need to keep on Twitter. Most of these emails have included requests for the place to go subsequent to maintain up with ed tech. My solutions have principally been, “I can not inform you when you ought to stop Twitter” and “electronic mail and Feedly.” 

Whether or not or not it is best to keep on Twitter is a call that you need to make for your self. A few of my good mates have deleted or a minimum of disabled their accounts. I haven’t got plans to do the identical, however I additionally have not been updating it or checking it practically as a lot as I did 5 years in the past not to mention for the reason that Elon Musk takeover. For me, the shine of social media dulled a minimum of 5 years in the past. Since then my favourite method to work together with folks has been by electronic mail or telephone calls or Zoom calls. That goes for skilled interactions in addition to private interactions. 

As for “maintaining” I subscribe to some weekly newsletters that I at all times learn. These embody the TCEA publication, Lee LeFever’s publication, and Chris Brogan’s publication. And I’ve a number of PR contacts who I belief to solely ship me worthwhile press releases (the remaining go straight to the trash bin). I am additionally an avid listener of the Planet Cash podcasts from NPR. 

Feedly is the RSS reader that I have been utilizing for the reason that demise of Google Reader. In case you’re unsure what an RSS reader is, it is principally a method to learn updates out of your favourite web sites with out having to go to them immediately. A greater clarification is supplied by Lee LeFever in his video RSS in Plain English.

Feedly makes it straightforward to subscribe to the web sites that you simply like and browse their updates multi function place. Apart from the few newsletters that I discussed above, I want to make use of Feedly to observe my favourite web sites as a result of I can do it by myself tempo with out feeling like my inbox is being invaded. If you wish to give Feedly a attempt, watch this video to discover ways to get began.

What about TikTok, Instagram, Mastodon, Fb, LinkedIn, flavor-of-the-day?

My Fb web page was by no means a precedence for me even when my posts there have been getting 100,000+ day by day natural interactions. That was earlier than Fb began suppressing web page content material that was paid promoting. The likes had been only a by-product of sharing my weblog posts. That mentioned, I nonetheless share my weblog posts there simply in case somebody is definitely attempting to observe my web page regardless of the obstacles that Fb places in place.

The mess that’s the Fb feed algorithm is consultant of the larger problem of looking for and observe significant data on any social media platform. The entire platforms reward quick, attention-grabbing content material no matter whether or not or not there’s any substance to it. It is advantageous for leisure (or killing time in line at a authorities workplace just like the DMV), but it surely’s not the place I am going for substance. After I need substance I will flip to long-form content material present in Feedly, in electronic mail newsletters, and more and more I get misplaced in rabbit holes on Google Scholar.

To be clear, I have never but given Mastodon , truthful attempt. That is most likely the results of two issues. First, I have never made the time. Second, I nonetheless really feel burned by a few of the previous Twitter training “chats” that turned from nice conversations to competitions of individuals attempting to make themselves appear insightful and or be the primary to make use of a brand new hashtag. It has been about ten years since I engaged in a kind of “chats.” In case you discover worth in them, nice! If I am fully unsuitable about Mastodon turning into Twitter training chats 2.0, please electronic mail me and inform me why I am unsuitable.

Get Off My Garden!

I went backwards and forwards on whether or not or not I ought to publish this submit as a result of I worry that it would come throughout as “previous man yelling at youngsters on his garden.” That was not my intention. My intention was to supply some concepts for different methods apart from social media to remain engaged in casual skilled studying. And if you wish to subscribe to my weekly publication, you may accomplish that right here.