Meredith, in her Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Attitudes and Behaviors, says “I don’t know how those of you who read more than 200 blogs manage to do it! I can barely keep up with 120 blogs (many of which I rarely read in their entirety). I guess there is a different between subscribing to a blog and actually reading all of the posts.”
Right now, I’m “reading” 174 feeds. But here’s what I really do:
- “Keeping up” with 174 feeds doesn’t mean in-depth reading of those feeds
- Some I browse through quickly
- Some, I think “not interested” and move on to the next post in my feed reader
- Some are photo blogs – I look at the photograph, think “cool” and move on
- Some I spend more time on, read, click through the links, respond to (in Meredith’s post’s case), etc.
- Some feeds don’t update very often, so reading them isn’t all that hard
- Some posts are about the same thing that 20 other posts will be about, so I can skim/skip them
Generally, I read those 174 feeds the same way I flip through a magazine or a newspaper – I skim the headlines and the text for something interesting. If I find something, I stay for a while. If not, I move on.