Yesterday I woke up and did my regular routine before work: I contemplated getting up and working out for so long that I only worked out for 35 minutes (hey! I worked out in the end…what did you do?) fed the Bax-man, showered, put my face on and watched the news. I did manage to get some clothes on in between there.
I’ve watched the news nearly every morning and since elementary school my choice has usually been NBC’s Today Show. I remember when Bryant Gumble hosted. Yeah. Remember that guy?
So, I turned on the Today show yesterday morning and caught a nice 10 minute segment about the new show, Dallas. Well, it’s not a new show. It’s just been updated from the 1978—1991 run it had. Did you notice the part where I mentioned it was 10 minutes long? That EONS in live news broadcasting. EONS on celebrating a television show being re-done.
“They spent a full 10 minutes discussing Dallas. Dallas! As if nothing is going on in Syria right now,” I grumbled. My Main Squeeze chuckled at my discontent. He knows it’s not an unusual complaint for me.
In the Today show’s defense, I caught that Dallas segment in the late first half hour of the show – after they’ve touched on the big news stories of the day. Usually read by Natalie Morales. Previously read by Anne Curry. Nerd alert!
You see, I have a very hard time not knowing what’s going on in the world. It’s important to me. I’ve made it a part of my daily routine to be informed. I’m baffled at people who don’t seem to care about being informed. Those people all share one irritating, maddening trait: apathy.
In my many adventures abroad, it really bothered me to hear the general stereotype that Americans were uneducated about the issues going on in the world around them, including in their own country. Yet, when I hear that people “really don’t care” about the upcoming election or that “it doesn’t affect me” or “the news is so depressing, why watch it?” they continue to prove that theory.
That apathy creates the world that we all live in. It’s funny how tunes are changed when a lack of caring gets someone elected into office and those elected officials in turn make decisions that directly affect people’s relatives or paycheck or healthcare or ability to retire. Why does it take that to make people pick up a newspaper? Whoops, sorry. How old school. I meant read the news online. I love speaking with people who are engaging about current events. It tells me they care or at the very least care to be informed. When people shrug off the “depressing” news, it tells me this: it’s easier to remain in a bubble than deal with the uncomfortable feelings that news stories may bring up.
So you may not know what’s going on Syria right now. You many not want to know. Trust me, some of the images and stories are heart-wrenching. But what if you knew someone who had relatives there? What if you had relatives there? Shouldn’t we always listen to the news with this type of sentiment in mind?
It would be silly to claim that you or I should know everything going on in the world. That’s for Brian Williams to handle. But being more informed is never a bad thing. Never. Naivety isn’t very becoming.
So do this news-loving girl a favor and read something about what’s going on in Syria today. Or read that Apple didn’t announce the new iPhone 5 at the WWDC! Or did you hear that one woman dared to drive in Saudi Arabia?
Learn something new everyday, huh?