With the algorithms fed by social media, it is easy to get trapped in a vortex of like-minded people and opinions. Once you start clicking on, commenting on, and reacting to a certain type of article or news topic, you start seeing only that type of news, to the detriment of other opinions and points of view. This is one great reason to use Feedly for yourself, and with your students. You can intentionally curate your news so that you are getting a nice spread of news sources that are conservative, liberal, and somewhere in between. You might also pepper it with international news sources who are (at least somewhat) outside of the bubble of American politics. This allows you to be more intentional about what you read, and the opinions you are exposed to, instead of allowing technology’s algorithms to do your thinking for you. While you may not agree with all you read, it is important to look at all sides, and to consider why others might agree or disagree with certain points and policies.
Adding content is as easy as clicking the “Add content” in the bottom left corner…
…and putting a URL right into the search box. Once you do, it will ask you what feed you’d like to add this source to.
To organize your Feeds, simply click the gear by the “Feeds” section in your left column, and you can easily edit the sources you already have, or create new collections.
Amanda M. Orozco 