As of right now, getting access to news from everywhere and anywhere around the world is more accessible than ever. You would think that with this, people would be more informed right? Well more often than not I hear about events sometimes weeks or even months after they happen, and I’d like to add that I try to watch at least a bit of news every day (with my grandma). I even hear about events on the car radio, it’s honestly hard not to be informed.

So if we have easy access, why is our knowledge of current events so limited? Well, it’s not hard to figure out, many peers of mine simply don’t care enough to really look into things. I’ve heard, ‘It doesn’t affect me, why should I care’ and ‘I still have homework due tomorrow.’ Which I’m honestly not surprised by, I feel in recent years it’s suddenly become cool to not care. Is it cringe to know whether people are suffering somewhere around the world? Is it cringe to want to see what other people from different walks of life are going through? How cringe could it be to show compassion and empathy towards causes that may not directly affect you, but represent something bigger than yourself.

Something that many fail to understand is seeing the bigger picture. Even small changes in social opinion are worth knowing like beauty standards, influential people, and even local news. They sometimes can show a deeper picture if people were willing to see past how it would look to others if they were seen caring. Caring about these things is actually beneficial for everyone. Keeping up with events raises awareness and creates conversations on what’s happening.

As much as people are online these days, curated media being fed to everyone based on content companies know you’d love is a good reason to be out of the loop, but you can’t stay this dense forever. At least once you’ve seen a piece of news you’ve mindlessly watched like two seconds of and skipped. Is being entertained more important than being informed? Some people seriously have a doom-scrolling problem. It shows in so many of the ways we get information now, even news outlets have started to cut down, clip, and post on any social media platform for consumption.

Solution? Self-control and opening up to the idea of learning information. You have to want to be informed and want to care about things that don’t revolve around you. It’s easy to act like you’re above all else and couldn’t care less, but it shouldn’t take you being directly affected for you to care. If anything, caring shows a good build of character and influences others to care as well.