RSS Isn’t Dead — It’s a Tool Against Web ‘Enshittification’

Recent commentary has reignited interest in RSS, arguing that web feeds remain a healthy, practical alternative to platform-driven content discovery. Rather than a relic, RSS is being framed as a tool to push back against the creeping 'enshittification' many users experience on social networks and commercial news aggregators.

The core idea is simple: feeds let you subscribe directly to sites and creators, bypassing algorithmic timelines, invasive tracking, and the monetisation strategies that often shape what you see. Two timely blog posts picked up by industry watchers remind us that RSS still works, requires little trust in any single company, and keeps control with the reader.

For everyday browsing, that matters. Using a feed reader — whether self-hosted, federated, or provided by a privacy-minded third party — means you curate your information flow. You decide what sources matter, and there are no engagement-driven ranking signals nudging you toward outrage or addictive loops. That’s an attractive value proposition for people tired of attention-economy design patterns.

There’s also a technical simplicity to RSS that’s underrated. Feeds are interoperable, lightweight XML documents that any site can publish. They pair well with modern readers that enhance usability — saving articles, tagging, offline reading — without sacrificing the feed’s basic openness and portability.

Of course, RSS isn’t a cure-all. It relies on sites offering feeds and on users taking the time to curate those subscriptions. But as a resistance tactic against platforms that increasingly prioritise profit over user experience, it’s quietly effective. If you’re looking to reclaim a less noisy, more intentional way to follow news and creators, dusting off a feed reader might be worth a try.