I get it. You’ve got so much on your plate and sometimes it’s so hard to keep up with it all, let alone anything going on outside of your world. But as someone whose actions do influence and are going to influence the world, and as someone who moves about in the world, it’s important for you to keep up to date on the things happening outside of your bubble too. The world’s your oyster – you should know what’s in it! But like shucking an oyster, keeping on top of current events can be intimidating and confusing if you weren’t already doing it. Here are some easy ways to get you started:
1. Start with what you love. The easiest way to start caring about current events is to read about the ones that interest you the most, and then branch out because everything eventually connects to each other. There’s a huge variety of news blogs and news sites that focus on really specific news, or really specific angles, but also serve reportage on current events. Into culture? One of my favorites is the New Yorker. Into social justice? Check out the Huffington Post. It doesn’t have to be super high-brow – don’t let anyone tell you pop culture isn’t important! My old roommate gets her news off of the Snapchat global stories, and Twitter has its Moments tab where you can check what people are talking about and track down the pulse of current events. You can also follow reporters on social media and see what they talk about.
2. Sign up for columns and newsletters that you care about. A lot of news blogs and sites can email you a collection of the top stories people are reading from that day, along with urgent news. I love the New York Times, and they send out a “morning briefing” of all the important events happening that day, with really brief 1-2 sentence synopses. Even reading these makes me feel like I know what’s going on even if I don’t have time to read the full articles.
3. You don’t have to read it. Not if you don’t want to! If you don’t have time to read, you can put on a news broadcast while you’re putting on your makeup in the morning or getting dressed instead of your usual music. If broadcasts bore you, try a podcast! Everyone and their mother is hosting their own podcast, and that means they’re all competing to be the funniest and freshest. Take advantage of it – Spotify and Apple Podcasts have a lot of great ones on there for free.
Even if you’re not doing these things every day, it’s important to stay informed when you can be. Who knows? You might be featured on there one day.
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