From Passive Consumption to Active Choice — Rebuilding a Personal Information Gateway with NetNewsWire

The information environment we live in today is very different from the earlier internet.

In the past, getting information usually required a deliberate action. We opened a website, looked for a section, read a newspaper, or subscribed to a publication. Editors and institutions still filtered what we saw, but in most cases we actively moved towards the information.

Social media gradually reversed that relationship. Instead of searching for information, we open a platform and wait for it to decide what to place in front of us. What we see, what appears first, how much of it we receive, and what follows next are increasingly determined by recommendation systems.

On the surface, the platform appears to be helping us by learning our interests. In practice, it is also continuously shaping those interests. What we click, how long we pause, and which subjects trigger an emotional response all become inputs for the next round of recommendations. Attention is no longer merely a personal resource. It has become something platforms collect, calculate, and trade.

In the AI era, this control is becoming less visible. Earlier recommendation systems mainly relied on statistical patterns across large groups. Newer systems are increasingly capable of modelling an individual’s interests, language habits, emotional reactions, and psychological vulnerabilities. They may learn not only what we like, but also which headline will make us click, which emotion will keep us watching, and which type of content will bring us back repeatedly.

This environment is more addictive and more likely to produce closed information loops. We may feel that we are consuming a vast amount of information, while in reality we are seeing only a narrow part of the world repeatedly selected and reinforced by an algorithm. The quantity of information increases while the diversity of sources may shrink. We know more isolated facts, yet our overall understanding of reality may become narrower.

For that reason, reorganising our information life cannot begin and end with “spending less time on the phone”. The more fundamental task is to reconsider our relationship with the information world at the level of the entry point itself, gradually replacing passive reception with active choice.

The information gateway directs attention

In my earlier article, The Radius of Control and the Radius of Attention, I argued that we need to distinguish between the range of things we can actually influence and the range of things to which we give our attention.

In the modern information environment, the radius of attention is often not determined by us. News platforms and social media continually stretch it outwards. An event anywhere in the world can enter our awareness within minutes and provoke anger, anxiety, excitement, or fear. Yet most of these events are outside our radius of control and may have little direct connection with our real lives.

The issue is not that we should stop caring about the world. The issue is that we need to decide again how, how often, and in what order we care about it.

Opening a social media platform means temporarily handing over the organisation of our attention. Opening an RSS reader means entering an information space we selected in advance. The platform asks what will keep us engaged. RSS begins with a different question — which sources have we consciously chosen to follow over time?

Both involve reading information, but the location of control is entirely different.

A personal website and RSS form an independent information platform

Regaining control requires more than replacing one news app with another. A more durable approach is to establish a personal information structure.

This structure has two directions.

The first is output, represented by a personal website.

Content published on social media remains dependent on the platform. The platform may change its recommendation rules, limit distribution, suspend an account, or disappear in the future. A personal website provides a stable place to preserve writing, ideas, photographs, podcasts, and other work over the long term. It does not require abandoning public platforms. It ensures that one’s work has a foundation that does not depend entirely on platform recommendations.

In this sense, a personal website is not only a publishing tool. It is part of personal information sovereignty.

The second direction is input, represented by a carefully selected collection of RSS feeds.

RSS may look like an old technology, but it is unusually well suited to the present environment. It does not need to analyse our emotions or use our viewing time to decide what comes next. We choose the sites, and the reader collects their updates for us.

A more balanced information structure therefore looks like this. A personal website provides a long-term home for our own work. RSS becomes the main channel for routine information input. Search engines and AI are used for deliberate investigation of specific questions. Social media remains available as a secondary and limited source.

Social media still has value. It can reveal public mood, unexpected events, friends’ activities, and information that has not yet reached formal media. But it should no longer serve as the first gateway we enter every time we go online.

A better approach is to reduce social media to a limited, deliberate activity at selected times, rather than allowing notifications, recommendations, and endless scrolling to invade the entire day.

Why NetNewsWire

NetNewsWire is a free and open-source RSS reader for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It brings together new articles from news sites, personal blogs, and other RSS sources, while keeping track of read and starred items.

Its strength is not complexity. Its strength is that it is clean and direct. There is no additional platform trying to arrange the reading order for its own benefit.

For people who mainly use Apple devices, NetNewsWire also offers iCloud syncing. Feed subscriptions, read status, and starred articles can be shared across Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

It supports OPML import and export as well. This means that the subscription list can usually be moved to another RSS reader later, rather than being locked into one service.

Downloading and setting up NetNewsWire

The Mac version can be downloaded from the official NetNewsWire website. The iPhone and iPad versions are available by searching for NetNewsWire in the App Store.

When the app is opened for the first time, the user needs to decide where subscriptions will be stored.

For use on a single Mac, the local On My Mac account is sufficient. A local account can also be used on a single iPhone or iPad.

For anyone who wants subscriptions and reading status to move between Apple devices, an iCloud account is the more suitable option.

On Mac, add an iCloud account in the NetNewsWire account settings. New or imported feeds should then be placed inside that iCloud account rather than only under On My Mac. Otherwise, they will not automatically appear on the iPhone or iPad.

The same iCloud account should also be enabled inside NetNewsWire on the mobile devices.

The first iCloud sync may take several minutes, particularly after importing a large subscription list. It is usually better to allow the first sync to finish rather than repeatedly changing the configuration.

Official guidance is available here:

• Getting started with NetNewsWire on Mac
• NetNewsWire help for iPhone and iPad
• NetNewsWire iCloud FAQ

Adding an individual RSS feed

A small number of sites can be added one by one.

On Mac, use the new subscription control or choose the option to create a new web feed, then enter either the site address or the direct RSS address. NetNewsWire can often discover a feed automatically even when the website does not display the RSS link prominently.

The feed can then be assigned to the appropriate account and folder.

This method is useful for adding occasional new sources. It becomes inefficient when building a larger, organised collection. OPML is the better tool for that task.

What OPML is

OPML is an open text format used to store subscription lists and folder structures.

A single OPML file can contain dozens or hundreds of RSS sources organised into folders such as:

• Canberra & Australia
• World News
• Artificial Intelligence
• Technology
• Philosophy & Psychology
• Music
• Chinese Sources
• Personal Blogs

When the file is imported into NetNewsWire, the folders and subscriptions can be created in one operation.

Because OPML is an open format, the user can keep a backup and import it into other compatible RSS readers. The subscription structure remains portable and under the user’s control.

Asking ChatGPT to generate a personal OPML file directly

Finding RSS sources, copying addresses, checking formats, building folders, and adding every subscription manually is possible, but tedious. A more direct method is to ask ChatGPT to generate a personal OPML file based on the user’s location, interests, languages, and reading habits.

“Generate an OPML file” should mean more than recommending a few websites or displaying XML code in the conversation.

ChatGPT can help with the whole process:

• design categories around the user’s interests
• choose suitable sources for each category
• collect public RSS addresses
• remove obvious duplication
• limit the number of feeds in each folder
• create a valid OPML structure
• save it as a downloadable file with the .opml extension

The downloaded file can then be imported directly into NetNewsWire.

A useful prompt might be:

I live in Canberra, Australia, and read in both English and Chinese. My long-term interests include artificial intelligence, software technology, philosophy, psychology, music, piano, Australian society, and major international news. I want to reduce entertainment gossip, emotionally manipulative content, clickbait, and highly repetitive news. Design a personal RSS subscription structure for NetNewsWire, organise it into folders, and directly generate a downloadable OPML file.

The structure can be specified in more detail:

Organise the feeds into Canberra & Australia, World News, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Philosophy & Psychology, Music, Chinese Sources, and Personal Blogs. Keep each category selective. Prioritise sources that update reliably, provide substantial content, and publish a public RSS feed.

It is worth stating explicitly, “Please generate a downloadable .opml file.” Otherwise, ChatGPT may display the OPML as text inside the conversation rather than creating an actual file.

If the response contains only XML beginning with <?xml version="1.0"?>, the user can follow up with:

Do not only display the code. Save it as a file with the .opml extension and provide the file for download.

Once created, the file can be saved in the Mac Downloads folder, iCloud Drive, or the Files app on iPhone and iPad.

Why ChatGPT can create a more personal OPML structure

A search engine can find popular websites, but it cannot easily decide which combination is appropriate for one particular person.

When someone has used the same ChatGPT account over a long period, the system may already understand their city, languages, professional background, recurring interests, reading habits, personal website, and the types of information they want to reduce. The resulting OPML can therefore become more than a generic news list. It can function as a personalised information gateway.

For someone living in Canberra and regularly reading about AI, philosophy, psychology, music, and Australian society, a good OPML should not consist only of large international news organisations. It should also include Australian public media, Canberra local sources, AI research organisations, technical blogs, philosophy publications, music resources, selected Chinese-language sources, and relevant personal blogs.

ChatGPT can also create different sizes and versions.

A compact version might contain only twenty to thirty core sources, keeping the daily volume manageable. An extended version can include more specialist publications for research and deeper reading.

Different languages can also be separated:

Generate one OPML file for Chinese-language RSS feeds and another for English-language sources.

The feeds can also be divided by purpose:

Create one OPML file for daily reading and another for research. Keep the daily version light, while allowing the research version to include more AI, philosophy, and technical sources.

This layered approach is usually easier to maintain than placing every source inside one enormous file.

What to check when ChatGPT generates an OPML file

The fact that ChatGPT can generate a file does not guarantee that every RSS address will remain valid indefinitely.

Websites change feed URLs, stop publishing, or provide feeds containing only headlines and short summaries. It is therefore sensible to ask ChatGPT to verify sources where possible and then test the imported list for a week or two.

A useful instruction is:

Check that each RSS address is publicly accessible where possible, remove duplicate sources, and do not include feeds that require personal access tokens, private accounts, or paid authentication.

If a feed produces no articles after import, open its address in a browser to check it. The broken source can also be given back to ChatGPT with a request to locate a current public feed and generate an updated file.

Private newsletter feeds, tokenised URLs, membership-only feeds, internal network addresses, and account-specific links should not be included in an OPML file that may later be shared publicly.

They may be acceptable inside a strictly private personal file, but the file should then be treated as private account data rather than as a public resource.

Importing the ChatGPT-generated OPML file on Mac

The process on Mac is straightforward:

1. Download the .opml file generated by ChatGPT.
2. Open NetNewsWire.
3. Choose File → Import Subscriptions… from the menu bar.
4. If more than one account exists, select the iCloud account or another desired account.
5. Select the downloaded OPML file.
6. Open it and allow the import to finish.

NetNewsWire adds the new subscriptions to the existing list. Importing an OPML file does not remove current subscriptions.

When the file is imported into an iCloud account, the first sync may take several minutes. The subscriptions should then appear on other devices using the same account.

Official instructions:

Import feeds from OPML on Mac

Importing OPML on iPhone or iPad

The file can also be imported directly on an iPhone or iPad.

1. Download the .opml file from ChatGPT.
2. Save it in the Files app, preferably in iCloud Drive.
3. Open NetNewsWire.
4. Go to the Feeds screen.
5. Open Settings.
6. Choose Import Subscriptions.
7. Select the destination account if more than one account exists.
8. Locate and open the OPML file in the Files app.

The new feeds will be added to the current subscription list.

Official instructions:

Import feeds from OPML on iPhone and iPad

Refining the list after import

The first OPML generated by ChatGPT should not be treated as a final answer. It is better understood as a well-structured starting point.

Use it for one or two weeks and observe:

• which sources consistently provide worthwhile material
• which sources publish too often without adding much value
• which publications repeat the same stories
• which folders have become too large
• which supposedly important subjects are rarely opened
• whether local information connected with real life is missing

Feeds that are rarely read, highly repetitive, excessively emotional, or dominated by clickbait can be removed. Sources that provide independent judgement and durable value can remain.

The revised subscription list can later be exported from NetNewsWire and given back to ChatGPT for further analysis:

This is my OPML file after two weeks of use. Check whether the folder structure is sensible, identify likely duplicate sources, suggest a leaner version that reduces information noise, and generate a revised OPML file.

In this way, ChatGPT can assist not only with creating the first version, but also with maintaining and refining the system.

Exporting OPML as a backup

Once the subscription structure has become stable, it is sensible to export an OPML backup from time to time.

On Mac, choose:

File → Export Subscriptions…

Select the account, file name, and storage location.

The backup can be kept in iCloud Drive or another secure personal archive. It can later be imported after reinstalling NetNewsWire or moving to another compatible RSS reader.

Official instructions:

Export feeds to OPML on Mac

Do not turn RSS into another information burden

RSS avoids much of the behavioural manipulation of social media, but an excessive number of subscriptions can still create pressure.

As unread counts grow, users may begin to feel that every article must be completed. RSS then changes from a tool of autonomy into another task list.

The aim should not be to read everything. The aim is to browse and select within a range of sources that has already been chosen deliberately.

A practical rhythm is to check RSS once or twice a day.

In the morning, spend fifteen to twenty minutes scanning Canberra and Australian news, major international developments, and the fields that matter most. There is no need to open every article.

In the late afternoon or evening, spend another twenty minutes reading a few substantial pieces and starring anything worth returning to later.

Outside those periods, there is little reason to refresh continuously. Unread numbers should not be treated as unfinished obligations.

Once a week, spend ten to twenty minutes removing sources that have declined in quality, adjusting folders, and adding an occasional new feed.

Social media can be limited to once a day or once every two days, within a short and deliberate time window. It is better not to make it the first information environment entered after waking or the final one encountered before sleep.

The exact schedule need not become rigid. The important change is to turn information intake from an endless stream of random stimulation into an intentional activity with a clear beginning and end.

From managing information to managing attention

Using NetNewsWire may look like a simple change of software, but it represents a different relationship with the information world.

On social media, we enter a stream that has already been arranged by the platform. With RSS, we first decide where information will come from and only then begin reading.

A personal website allows our own work to exist independently of platform distribution. RSS makes routine information input less dependent on recommendation algorithms. AI helps us discover, organise, and update the sources. Social media can still remain, but it no longer occupies the centre.

This approach is not an attempt to withdraw from the world or revive a vanished version of the internet. It is a way to preserve deliberate choice while AI and recommendation systems become increasingly powerful.

What needs protection is not only privacy or personal data. It is also the way attention is allocated, the way the world is understood, and the subjects that are allowed to enter and remain within our inner lives.

When the information gateway returns to our own hands, we may not necessarily know more. We are, however, more likely to know why we are reading something and which parts of the world genuinely deserve our time.

That is the deeper meaning of moving from passive consumption to active choice.