It wasn’t until this week when a friend from home told me about four major headline news stories I hadn’t heard about that I realized we live in a bubble at DePauw. It’s so easy to deny it – I mean we have The DePauw, we have our professors who stay up to date on current events and we have social media. But how many of us can actually say we are informed on the most recent news in pop culture, economics and politics? It’s not hard to become isolated on such a small campus, especially in such a tiny, rural Indiana town. Because we can’t ignore the imminent fact that once we graduate or even go home for the summer, we’re going to have to actually be knowledgeable about national and world events, I’ve come up with a list of four of the best ways to stay in touch with life outside DePauw.
- The New York Times Morning Briefing: For free, the New York Times will send you an email every morning at 6 a.m. detailing the news of the past day on a national and international scale. They include fun noteworthy facts and tips to start your morning better so reading the news is not such a drag. And the only step required is going to their websites to sign up!
- Follow the right social media: Yes, social media is essentially current events at the tips of your fingers, but it all depends on which social media accounts you follow. To be frank, sometimes your friends from high school who you follow on Twitter aren’t the most credible sources for breaking news information. Even if it’s watching Snapchat stories, paying attention to accounts such as CNN, The Washington Post and even People can make a big difference….
- Call home: For the lazy people (I know I do this sometimes), one of the easiest and most convenient ways to get some scoop is to call home – whether that be to parents, grandparents, high school friends, whomever. Anyone who still has a cable TV in their house is bound to know more than we are at DePauw. On a smaller scale, you might learn some news about your own family, since even they’re easy to lose touch with when you move away.
- Read the news: Although its old fashioned, newspapers are the most direct source of news available, and are now only a click away online. While some publications might require subscriptions or only let you read an allotted number of articles, others are entirely free to browse. Reading an article about a news event is usually guaranteed give you whatever clear and direct facts they have.
While living in our own little DePauw bubble may be comforting, it’ll be a rude awakening senior year when we have to face the real world again. The best way to combat that in the meantime is by staying informed, whether it’s by the four suggestions listed above or any other means available.