Four years ago, a professor told my class we would never be successful if we didn’t know what was going on globally, nationally, and locally in the news. I remember rolling my eyes. Even though I was attempting to go into broadcasting, essentially the heart of all news, I still found his request ridiculous. He expected me to interact with the news every single day and retain what was going on. I rolled my eyes again. Please, you’re joking.

Within the last week, I have had two conversations in which I remembered my past professor's daunting task. One of them was with my roommate, who is an incredibly bright young woman, but who had no idea Adele had released a new single called “Hello." My jaw dropped: “You’re joking!” She shook her head and explained how busy she was. In my mind, it was close to impossible that she had no idea that “Hello” had come out. A day later, when a current professor made a joke about E. Coli and Chipotle, my friend, who is an incredibly bright young man, leaned over to me and asked, “What’s the deal with Chipotle?” Again, I was shocked. How did he not know that the one Chipotle in town had closed because of the possibility of E. Coli in the food?

It just did not make sense to me. How could you be that busy that you aren’t even aware of what’s going on? For a moment, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I subscribe to two news subscriptions that email me daily. I constantly check the news online, and follow multiple news sources on Facebook. In my life, I am constantly inundated with news, though if you ask my professor from freshman year, it’s still not enough. So, I figured maybe they just aren’t.

But, then I thought, 'Wait a minute. That’s not possible.' With the abundance of information on the Internet today, it’s impossible to avoid being up to date on some kind of news. For instance, Facebook has a ticker on the right-hand side of its layout that reports on trending phrases. Our school emails us if there is a breach in security or safety, and it has multiple social media outlets updated with news daily.

There is also an element of just being lazy. There is truly no reason why you should not attempt to be actively involved in knowing what is going on globally, nationally, and locally. It is so simple to claim you don’t care or you’re busy, but truly, that is no excuse to be naïve. Knowing what’s going on in the news allows you to have better insight that can help you contribute to class discussions or even to conversations with friends. Not knowing what’s going on in the news proves your disconnect from the outside world. It is so easy to get wrapped up in your microcosm within school; however, it is more respectable and astute to be aware.

With the abundance of information and news sources on the Internet, I urge you to search for ones that you enjoy and work with your lifestyle. My suggestions are based off of sources that I prefer and enjoy.

I like: BuzzFeed News, theSkimm, Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The Atlantic, and Lenny Letter.