If you’re like me, or like most Americans, or maybe even like most people inhabiting Earth, you’re probably sick of election season. There’s a good chance that you’re just waiting for November to come, for all the madness to be over, and for everyone to just move on.

It’s no question as to whether or not this election season has been crazy, maybe even crazier than ever before. Nearly every news story is somehow related to the White House race, and each time you log on to Twitter you are sure to see what the latest crazy thing to come out of a candidate’s mouth was. Comedians have more material at the fingertips than ever. Late night television is dominated by the election. It’s been going on for over a year now and November is still three months away.

Something that may have helped this race to become so out of control was the number of candidates that started. There were nearly 20 candidates initially in this race. 20 different people all competing to become the most powerful person in the world. With such a large field, it was pretty easy at a given time to find something that at least one of them said, and with Donald Trump handing out insults to every single one of them, it got to be a regular thing to hear news coverage on whatever the latest bit of drama was.

Now that the conventions are over and the field is narrowing, the drama could actually increase. There aren't as many options to choose form when it comes to attacking someone anymore, and both Clinton and Trump have only each other in their way. The attacks will most likely increase, and consequently, if possible, so will every news site's coverage of it.

With all of the drama, something is getting lost from the media. In fact, it's the most important thing during the elections: the candidates' beliefs. There isn’t a focus on the issues. Besides the overall generalizations that come with each party, we really haven't gotten a lot of insight into what each candidate supports, what their policies are, and what they plan on doing if they win.

The point I'm trying to make by all of this is that the media is doing something dangerous with this election season: it's turning it into an entertainment industry. It's like watching a reality television show (which I guess could be in part to the fact that one nominee is a reality television star, but that's a whole different topic).

All the news outlets are covering the irrelevant things for the same reason: it's bringing in ratings and money. People are treating it like a game, laughing about the latest scandal. It's what the people want to hear right now, so why not keep giving it to them?

I can't express how incredibly dangerous this is. On a practical level, it's dangerous because we aren't learning about the issues and where the candidates stand on them. We aren't being educated as to how the candidates feel about things we feel strongly about. We also have many people not making their own decisions about who they support or what they believe about a particular person, the are solely basing it off of what everyone else thinks, which diminishes democracy.

More than anything, though, is that its creating unnecessary division. There is already unneeded division in this country, especially between parties, and then is just widening the gap. When the president is elected in November, he or she is going to have a ton of heated opposition that will make a time of transition in our country much harder than it needs to be.

So, what can we do? Don't feed the industry. Stop sharing these stories and adding to the fuel. Be conscious of the impact that this process has on the country and the world, and quit treating it like a cheap joke or some sort of entertaining television show. It's not. It's giving someone the highest office in the land. Next, educate yourself. Make your own decisions! Finally, enncourage others to do the same. This isn't a game. Let's vow, as concerned citizens, to give it the seriousness it deserves and quit treating like one.