As a college student life gets busy, between school and keeping up with a social life people forget that there are real-world issues going on while we’re in the bubble of our university life. Sometimes we forget to stay informed on what things are going on in the world. It’s a little scary that our generation might not try to seek information that they should know about, with things like the government and world affairs. I know as a college student your life can’t be consumed by finding out every current event that’s going on out there, but you should at least try and inform yourself of things that are going on in the world. I’m here to tell you that it’s pretty easy to stay informed and it won’t take more than 10 minutes out of your day. Here are the 5 ways to stay informed!
- Social Media is the quickest way to stay informed on world events. All you have to do is follow or like a page on whatever social media site you use the most, it’s that simple! Once you pick your favorite news source you’ll find that most of them post stories throughout the week that are important for readers to know about. If a headline catches your attention, all you have to do is click a link to the story. If you love social media, then this method is good for you to stay informed.
- Phone Apps are another great way to help you stay informed on current events. This is similar to social media. Just pick the news source you like to follow and download their app. Most of the time they’re free, so it’s worth using the space on your phone. Apps are great because they’ll function similar to a website. If you prefer this method, try and look at the app once a day for 5 or 10 minutes and read some of the stories they have posted. Even if you don’t read the full story, being somewhat informed is better than not being informed at all.
- Television is one of the old-fashioned ways to stay informed. Most news programs air at set times throughout the day. Local news usually leads into national news so, if you’re doing homework or just eating dinner, you should put the TV on and listen to some of the stories that are being reported. Not only will you get more informed in several different ways if you’re watching both local and national news, but you might find a story about something you never expected to know about. While TV takes a little more time out of your day, there’s no reason you can’t multitask while listening to the news of the day.
- Online news is along the same lines as social media and phone apps, but if you’re sitting at your computer you might as well take a few minutes to check out a news website. Most stations post all of their stories that are aired during their actual show. So if you don’t have time to sit for 30 minutes to an hour watching the news you can get little bursts of stories that catch your attention. Make sure you try and look at all spectrums of news if you can and not just “breaking news,” because there might be something important going on that you miss because you only focused on that section.
- Print is the oldest method of getting news besides word of mouth. If you have some time on your hands, you should pick up a newspaper and read through it. Newspapers are a dying art, but they are still a great source of information. If you want the feeling of holding the paper in your hand, then picking up a newspaper is definitely the way to go. You can find a lot of the stories online but many websites are starting to charge for use of the site. If you want to avoid those pesky little charges, then you might as well read your news the way our parents did… on paper.