Why do RSS readers look like email clients?
That is a REALLY GOOD question.
The screen says you have 847 unread articles. The screen, through its visual language, implies that this is a problem to be solved, a debt to be paid down.
But what's actually true? Some people wrote things. They put those things on the internet. You expressed interest in being notified. That's it. No one is waiting. No one will know or care if you declare bankruptcy and mark all as read.
The guilt is a ghost. It haunts a house that no one lives in.
The guilt is real. For me it's FOMO. The feeling like that next unread article is going to be the one. The one for what? I don't even know, but I'm irrationally certain of it.
Podcasts borrowed the queue from music players. But nobody ever felt guilty about unplayed albums. "I haven't listened to all my records" isn't a confession. Podcast apps added unplayed counts, progress bars, completion stats. Your listening became a task list.
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An interface that shows you an unread count is making an argument: that reading is something to be counted, that progress is something to be measured, that your relationship to this content is one of obligation.
We should be more conscious of which arguments we're immersing ourselves in, hour after hour, day after day.