Sunday, February 5, 2012

Leaking My Sources

My sources of news and current events are fairly limited based on my lifestyle. I know, I know I said that I had reformed my unmindful ways and was becoming a more "civic-minded citizen" but old habits die hard...or in this case it would be more accurate to say that the old habits viciously attack and kill the new habits that are trying to take their place. See, it's time for midterms and with all the homework I've had lately I'm lucky if I get to use my computer for anything other than school...and I may never want to look at another computer again. BUT that's beside the point. As implied from my earlier statements about my computer most of my information comes from the Internet. Most of the time though I don't simply go online to look at the news for the sake of the news. Usually I hear about things through other people (is it bad to say that my parents are (well were...I'll explain later...wow parenthesis inside parenthesis, because that's not confusing) a huge part of my daily news update?) whether through word of mouth or via Facebook(yes FB) people are usually where I hear news from first. Once I hear about something that intrigues me then I look it up. Generally speaking I don't just get on the Internet and think to myself, "hmm, I wonder what's going on in the world today?" That's not really how I work, unless I'm bored...which is something I definitely haven't been lately.

Before I came to college my sources were a bit more varied. For example, my dad (see I told you I would explain) likes to watch a lot of TV he also makes ample use of the AP News app on his phone. My mom also keeps track of the news, from a LOT of different sources (she's kind of a news junky). My grandparents are more of traditionalist and like to read the paper as well as watch the news on TV. So, between my parents and my grandparents I would usually hear all about the day's news. They would have discussions about what was interesting and debate about what was going on (that's my nice way of saying that they complained/ranted about what's going wrong in our country). I think that's why I'm probably not as good about keeping up on current events as I should be, because I could always count I hearing it from them. Between the lot of them, it was almost as if I'd read it all myself.

Now that I've moved out of the house I have noticed the difference. I feel much more out of the loop than I used to be, like my world has kind of shrunk a little bit and my focus has gone from a broad perspective to a much smaller one. Not that I've stopped caring but that I've just become more absorbed in my day-to-day activities. Granted being back in school is a huge part of that, and concentrating on my schoolwork is prioritized over almost everything else (God, Family, Friends, School is how my list is structured but the borders between God, Family and Friends are a little blurred most of the time...they kind of all intermix a little).

Simply put, I was dependent on my family and friends for most of my news. Now that I'm spending time away from them I've noticed that I hardly ever watch TV(partially because I'm not sure how to get cable going, partially because I just don't really watch TV. I'm much more of a movie kind of girl) and I rarely check the news. Other, more traditional sources, like the radio or the newspaper are not convenient. I don't get the paper, nor do I have the time to read it, and I only ever listen to the radio when I drive (which I don't do much anymore since I live on campus). As I adapt to my life in college (after all, it is only my first year...I have to keep reminding myself of that) I think I will slowly get back into the habit of being "in the loop" but for now I think I'm still just getting used to the fact that I'm here. 

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