Throughout my college career, I have had many courses that ask the students of the class to talk about current events. What I realized in most of these classes is that most of my peers didn't know any current events. People knew where their friends were at that exact moment, they knew that Meek Mill and Drake have "beef," and they know exactly what their ex is up to. Everyone knew what was going on in their small world, but most of them had no idea what was going on in the world around them.

I walked around the dining halls only to see that all of the newspapers were still sitting in the stands with maybe one or two missing. Instead, people were reading the different tweets and Facebook posts, most having to do with the " 10 reasons why..." or the "7 signs you are...". I walk around and notice that things going on in the world are going unnoticed by the young generation who are more consumed with very trivial things.

It's hard for me to admit, but I am one of these people. The closest I come to reading about the news is looking at the CNN story on my Snapchat app. I was embarrassed when I was in my classes, and the professor started relating the topic to a current event that I haven't even heard of. I wasn't alone, you could tell the class got uncomfortable because maybe only one or two people knew what the teacher was talking about. Those of us who didn't know immediately pulled out our phone to google the situation that was being talked about.

What may be even worse than the people in my generation not keeping up with the news, is even when we do, its only nationwide. Don't get me wrong, I think it is more than important to know what is going on in your own country. However, we can't just restrict ourselves to that. Our generation needs to know what is going on with the Iran nuclear situation or the problems some countries are having with human trafficking. Yes, world news is scary and sometimes uncomfortable, but its vital that we know that not everyone is living the way we are, here in the United States. Our generation needs to know the basics of different countries' current news, especially China's economy. It's this kind of stuff that we are going to need to know for our future jobs. Unfortunately, the knowledge of sports and entertainment news won't do us much good a few years from now.

I'm writing this because I am annoyed with myself and others my age. We need to care more about the bigger picture and less of the little world we live in. When we get asked about a current event, we should be able to hold an intelligent conversation about it, and know what side we decide to take. So college students, high school students, and all others who haven't read or watched the news in weeks: watch the news, read the news, know the news.