Are You Social Media News Informed, Or Traditionally Aware?

By Samantha Weller on July 5, 2016

Any Millennial witnesses it every time they go on social media: clashing stances on the current primary election or other events, so-called hashtags that serve as false perceptions for helping, and unreliable articles on news that is far from the truth. Occasionally, there are some reputable sources, but legitimate or not, social media continues to redefine how young adults educate themselves about current topics.

I, for one, enjoy finding news on my own by reading the newspaper, while not devoting too much time and energy into social media news, and avoiding skewed perceptions from excessive opinions online. I also like to get a better sense of the bigger picture, not just specific events that stand out more to my generation, most of which are either quite irrelevant such as celebrity news, or regard too many biased views on the overly-posted election. The merits of trending topics on social media today change our viewpoints on the world. However, it’s much easier to focus on solely what’s important with traditional news. The number of articles produced today is tremendous, but only a small amount actually hold value.

Everyone is informed about the current election events, for instance, but how many can actually name the supervisors of their university or hometown? Furthermore, how many keep up with the news the way it should be, by reading the newspaper, or watching the news on tv? A recurring issue among the Millennial generation, is that we all strive to be aware of world events in the most laid-back way. We think it’s most convenient to get updated whenever it happens to come up on one of our daily tasks of technology. According to a study on news consumption and the correlation to social media, Facebook is the leading technology source people get news from. This isn’t just due to more news being on Facebook, as a research summary on social media, based in 2015, shows that Facebook is the most popularly used, so being exposed to news is so popular on it because it’s just convenient that it’s there.

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Of course, anyone could say that getting news content off social media is more convenient for them, as they don’t have to make much of an effort to search for it. On social media, the news will also be more picture-oriented, thereby easier to quickly identify topics. However, we shouldn’t get adjusted to the easier way of getting updated about the world like this, nor should we adjust to being fundamentally lazy in respect to being aware of the world.

Being politically informed shouldn’t be a lifestyle; it should be a duty as a citizen to be aware of our surrounding issues, adjustments, and opinions. Politics is important, as it can bring out our inner-leadership, makes us more aware of underlying factors in our local economy we might not be aware of, and effects our stance and perspective of our area. We need the most solid material, when we have a sea of varying opinions in today’s society. While only the truth should obscure any opinions we have, it seems many biased ones, along with multi-directional views, leave us confused about our where we should stand on current topics.

The problem with receiving news on social media is that it skews our sense of opinion on events that require our own to really make something out of it. Even in the news, opinions are biased, and always will be; but the worst of it will remain on social media, where people try change our opinion immediately, before we get the chance to read a story and develop our own natural opinion on the content. Additionally, social media tends to be multi-directional, greatly weakening the main focus of the content, whereas news on broadcast media tends to go in a single direction. Our ability to develop our own opinion on issues is significant towards our personal growth. It’s easy to abide to popular opinions on social media platforms, but ultimately, we have to learn to construct one by ourselves.

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While there may be some news content on social media that relates to updates on the election, or important world events such as newly-debated laws, there are just as many redundant news stories that cover completely irrelevant news. It seems that more people know about celebrity news than some tragic events that are occurring around the world and which could strongly impact us in the near future.

In fact, a study in 2012 found that the Kardashians got 40 times the news coverage than ocean acidification, which is a widely disregarded issue that poses disaster to us. Another report claims that Americans keep up with the Kardashians way more than current government issues. News about the Kardashians is easier to interpret, but shouldn’t hinder our determination to know principal topics. The fact that such irrelevant “news” coverage on topics that have no effect on us supersedes news that is crucial to all of humanity shows how horribly adept Millennials are at differentiating what is news and what isn’t.

Try and get away from the media on social networks every once in a while, and you might be surprised to see how much more eye-opening it is to read the newspaper like past generations did, receiving more concrete information, and discovering the big picture for yourself. The difference between social media and traditional news is immense — as is the difference between knowing and not knowing. Being informed about situations around the world, which right now involves a lot of struggling and disregarded countries like Venezuela, helps remind us how privileged we are.

More importantly, it’s essential to at least try and make a difference in a world that needs all kinds of reform. We may not feel like we can, but the Dalai Lama once iconically said, “if you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in bed with a mosquito,” and this powerful statement couldn’t be more true today.

If we feel virtually powerless towards contributing to our society, that’s because our sense of priority among current events has faded. If we discover for ourselves the will to regain an ease of awareness about news that was in previous generations, and how much more clear everything is from that alternative, our lives will not only be easier, but more understandable.

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