Why did you click on this article? Truly, I'm asking you to answer that question for yourself.
I'm not here to give you sex tips, advice on how to find your one true love, or to warn you about the latest drug on the market. In fact, I won't give you any of that information because I think you're better than that. You deserve more than flimsy, opinionated advice on how you should live your life. Every day, every hour, we thumb through pages of social media with articles and advertisements about sex, love, weight loss, and other flashy but meaningless headlines. We pass the latest and greatest celebrity love life and post-baby body updates just trying to check out some bananas and peanut butter in the grocery store. And absolutely none of it matters.
That magazine can't tell you how to have THE BEST SEX OF YOUR LIFE any more than I can. It doesn't have the NEVER BEFORE REVEALED SECRET TO WEIGHT LOSS WITHOUT DIETING OR EXERCISE (hint: the secret is dieting and exercise). You won't meet your true love in an online article, and you probably shouldn't follow their absurd "romance" advice, either. But these are the things you and I are bombarded with day in, day out. We can't function without running into constant reminders that we aren't good enough, we aren't pretty enough, we aren't thin enough, doing enough, trying enough. And I've had enough.
Stop buying into it. Actually, put down the Cosmopolitan. I promise you it's the same as it was last month but with new names and new pictures. Stop settling for the same information force-fed to you over and over again. Aspire to more. Read up on advances in science, important events in history, developments in the humanities, current events, religion, anything. Society is tossing you popcorn when there's a big juicy steak sitting on the table behind them. Why on Earth are you accepting less?
Moreover, it is unreasonable that you need five different forms of social media and 12 games on your smartphone to get through the day, especially if you're in college! You have access to your campus library and a database of pure knowledge! Read and write about important happenings, people, ideas. You are better than the same flashy words flickered before you every day. You deserve intellectual stimulation that surpasses the latest celebrity gossip. Society screams at you to change superficially. Contrarily, I'm imploring you to better yourself for the long run by being stimulated, being aware, being knowledgeable. Think about the links you click on and why you want to read them. What information does this article promise that you don't already know? Will knowing this make you a more-informed and well-rounded citizen? These aren't just your mid-class Internet rabbit trails -- the things you read shape your thoughts and conversations. It's up to you to improve the intellectual conversation of our generation.
Do you want to change the world around you? Stop feeding into it. Movie popcorn tastes good every once in a while, but eating it every day is killing you.
