Throughout my life I was taught that nothing mattered more than history and news of today, because what happened in history and the current events affect the future; this future is the world in which I will lead my life.  I find myself, as a frequent reader of news, more and more alone in this belief as I battle through my high school years.  

Students spend hours scrolling through their Instagram feeds and checking their Facebook notifications, but cannot seem to find the motivation to click on the New York Times link or download a news app.  Though students generally claim they do not have enough time to read a four-page article as opposed to simply skimming the headline, the real problem lies in what we, as students, are surrounded by.  

Many of our role models no longer emphasize the importance of reading the news and instead are allowing students of this age to fall into the belief that news no longer matters.  My generation is consumed by social media and seems to believe that our futures will simply just work out for us. To me this signifies ignorance and lack of awareness of the world we are soon going to enter as adults.

Social media is one way for students our age to connect with the current events worldwide.  Social media today is attempting to push news themselves. Snapchat, an app that is extremely popular with the student community, provides short news blurbs from a variety of news sources. They also provide live news feed of large events around the world, such music festivals (like Coachella), the Super Bowl, and even Paris after the fatal terrorist attacks last November. Facebook and Instagram often advertise news on users’ feeds and even allows their users to follow newspapers like the Skier Scribbler.  This new way of receiving news is giving my generation a new way of staying connected.  Instead of actually picking up a newspaper or even visiting a news website, we can find our most important news right on those social media apps.  This is a beneficial start in upping our generation’s news readership.  Still, updating ourselves via social media is only the start of staying current with local and worldwide events.

The news contains the most important local and global events. For American students, the U.S. national news is especially important. At the age of 18, a child becomes a legal adult, and is therefore ready to vote for the next leaders of the United States, people that help to make OUR lives and rights better or worse. The news is what brings forth all the information on what each candidate has recently done or how the race for presidency is going. In order for a student to make any type of informed decision on who to vote for, they must first look to the news to know what has happened in each electoral race. Recently, Snapchat accommodated to this. They have added a new story news feed entitled “Good Morning America.” On this story, a young reporter working for the app follows the presidential race around America and provides an entertaining insight to the debates.  

News gives people a chance to reach out and become a part of the global community.  If one knows the goings on around the world, they become better educated and further become more involved in the world and trying to make it a better place for us all, so next time you have a few free minutes, pick up a newspaper or read a few articles online. You might be surprised by how much reading the news can do for you.