RSSs: Are they a way to organize or to spend way too much time on the Internet? (Thing 8)

I started up a Google reader that includes several blogs and news sites including a site that gives recipes, one that lists books and reviews, New York Times and Amazon.

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders? I like the ease of adding the feeds when I vist a site that has that little doohickey symbol thing. I feel like I will get some use out of this RSS stuff this summer, but I may ease up on the reading after the new school year begins again. Free time to play on the Internet is a good thing. Thanks for this chance to do that and get credit.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? I can see where this would be good for keeping up on current events or to suggest to parents so that they can put the classroom blog on a reader and be aware of updates.

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
I am thinking that a feed to several book sites would help librarians know about new books, Newsfeeds would help patrons who may be researching current events and want to see several sources faster. There could be one RSS that is all about books and reviews of books set up for browsers. The librarian who reads aloud to groups could use the technology to show reviews of the books he/she reads and then post a group review.

My favorite part of this activity was finding out about the CommonCraft videos. I think they are well done and truly make at least the ideas behind all of this stuff clearer. My least favorite part about all of the news feeds is the mass amounts of information. Some that I have read is very useful to me others are not. Combing through it is a chore, but I like the diversity of the sources. It proves to me that just watching TV news or reading only one or two sources (all backed by advertisers) can give a limited perspective.