Why I read news with Google Reader
I like reading you know? I enjoy keeping myself informed. I only like reading online, preferably on Google Reader. Why? Well…
Because I don’t like newspapers. Not in physical form. I tried getting a subscription to the Toronto Star and after the first delivery I started throwing them in the recycle bin without even opening it. To begin with, half the paper was about cars, car ads, driving, and how great it is to have cars, drive big gas guzzlers, and in general just show to the rest of the world that you have a small penis you’re trying to make up for. Also, its yesterday’s news. Everything I read in the paper, I’d already read online.
Now that I think about it, maybe I don’t like newspaper websites either. Maybe with the exception of the New York times. The NYT is.. pretty, it doesn’t hurt my eyes when I’m browsing the site. By comparison, the HuffPost is such an awful website I don’t even have words to describe it. Also, lot of the NYT’s writing doesn’t make my head explode with their never-heard—of-synonyms that a lot of so called journalists like to use, and its not The Toronto Sun with their bigger than life sensationalist headlines.
But I’m just bitchin, the truth is I don’t like reading news anywhere than the safety of Google Reader because in GR, everything looks the same, the formatting of articles is great, there are no colourful backgrounds, no rotating banner images, no “Digg It”, “Twitter It”, “Share Your Reaction” buttons, but most of all, there are no comments.
Comments of news articles are a low point for hummanity. Its amazing what the anonymity of the Internet will allow you to do: be mean, be rude, be insulting.
Take this one example: Shots fired as Toronto home invasion goes awry. An article about 2 people who tried breaking into a house, something goes wrong, they shoot somebody, they escape, but are later captured. Pretty straight forward, I mean is sad, but simple.
This is one of the comments on it:
“Of course the left will say that they are not responsible for their actions because of an unhappy childhood. That should be good for about a 12-month sentance here. ” (copy & pasted exactly as is from website)
I can’t even begin to understand the fear, or anger -or both, that this man has for the “soft, hippie liberals”.
But there, that is the reason I hate comments, because of people’s inability to relate and be human.
Maybe this has nothing to do with Google Reader, and I’m just angry at people in general.
/end rant.
