Alternative To: Like And Subscribe

If you watch YouTube, you will find that most presenters encourage you to “Like and Subscribe”. The effect of you complying with this request has two effects.

1. You will supply your personal information to the algorithm that Google/YouTube uses to profile you.
2. It gives the presenter permission to send you “Push Notifications” whenever they are posting more videos. Remember that It serves to feed your addiction.
3. Google updates their profiling of you to include the fact that you really like this type of content.

If the content on a website is of interest to you, chances are that their content is also accessible using a “Pull Notification” mechanism called RSS news feed. All you have to do is install a RSS news reader on your device and it will contact the website and find out what the latest post is, which may contain a video, if that is what they use to provide your information. Since you are the newsreader are not being pushed information, this whole mechanism occurs only when you are ready to receive the information.

If the site you are trying to access, is WordPress site, then it will automatically have their posts available using the URL, https://myfavouritewebsite.com/feed/

If you are hosting your own website and wish to ensure that your WordPress installation allows sending the RSS feed, you need to make sure it is not being automatically blocked by your service provider. Talk to them, if the link about does not work for your site.

This alternative method to access information has the following benefits:

1. Google doesn’t know what you are reading.
2. You control when you read the information.
3. You can decide whether the content is feeding your FOMO addiction or really providing information that will benefit your life.