The next personal technology influence that has an effect on my daily life is something that helps me keep track of the world around me, on my time and my schedule and without the "noise" of information I don't care about. It is...

Technology Influence #7 - Blogs and Customized News Feeds

If you're reading this article, chances are, you already know what a blog is. After all, what you are reading is a post on my personal blog, leonardarmstrong.net. But, if you're still unclear I’ll make this simple. Let’s define a blog as someone’s online journal where the author (i.e., blogger) can comment on any topic (s)he so chooses. However, in many cases blogs are theme-specific so the commentary is often centered around a certain topic or theme. Some popular themed blogs include http://perezhilton.com/ (Entertainment industry gossip), http://www.engadget.com/ (Consumer technology) and http://www.politico.com/ (Politics), just to name a few.

Blogs can be read by going directly to the webpage mentioned or by using a blog reader application such as Reeder or NetNewsWire. (Both of which have cross-platform versions available.) These applications retrieve new blog posts when they are available and provide a structured interface for you to skim them or read them in detail. They work with a technology called RSS which stands for Really Simple Streaming. (The orange part of the image at the top of this post is the common RSS news feed symbol.) But its not just blogs that feed their updates through RSS. Most popular new sites feed their breaking stories through RSS feeds as well.

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Reeder Blog and News Feed Reading Application[/caption]

If all that techno-babble makes your head spin, fear not. In simple terms, what it means is that I can use one application, such as those listed above, and have a custom set of stories tailored to my personal interests all in one place. See the screenshot of Reeder to get a more tangible feel for what I'm talking about. On the left are categories for organizing the blogs I read. If I just want to catch up on technology I can click on the "Tech" category and the stories shown to me will be filtered accordingly. The second column shows a snippet of the the stories that are available. If one catches my eye I can click on it and the main window will show the whole story. This way I can quickly peruse available topics and drill in for more detail on only the stories that are of interest.

Its not just blogs that use RSS feeds but also most news sites as well. There's not really much difference between a blog and a news organizations's feed of breaking news stories. Both are combinations of text and other media (pictures, videos) that are produced on an on-demand schedule and that the producers want to publish to the world in a convenient and direct form. The line between a blog and a news feed is murky and from a technology standpoint there is no difference. Most major news companies like CNN, Fox and even The Huffington Post have RSS feeds available.

I no longer turn to sources like TV, radio or newspapers as a first source for news. To capture the latest information that is important to me, blogs and news feeds have changed my model for information consumption.

Next: One more break from the Top 10 Technology Influences with a conversation on "The Struggles of Weight Control"

Then: Down the home stretch on the Technology Top 10 with Influence #9 - Quantified Self Technology.