This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Illinois chapter.
You slowly open your eyes, whether it’s naturally or through your blaring alarm clock, and the first thing you reach for is your phone. Your initial reaction is to recap what has happened while you were asleep – any text messages you missed or any notifications that popped up overnight. For that reason, you naturally start clicking away on the different social media apps to push the sleepiness out of your eyes. Well, why not check up on the news? Here’s why checking the news at least twice a day should be a good habit to develop!
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1. You Learn More About Your Environment and Society
There are so many topics in the news that it can sometimes feel overwhelming even opening up any news app, which is why I recommend starting small. Start with local news: What’s going on in your neighborhood? In your city? You would actually be surprised by the many wonderful and serious happenings going on! Once you start learning what’s going on in your local area, then maybe you can transition to national news and how the things happening nationally affect your city. From there, you can even look at global news and during these trying times, it can be interesting to see how our nation interacts with others. However, the big emphasis here is to look at the news that interests you, otherwise, it will be overwhelming and frankly, quite boring.
2. You Become More Educated on Topics You’re Interested In
Relating back to my prior point, looking at topics that interest you is also a great way to become exposed to the news. Perhaps you’re interested in climate change, immigration, women’s rights, etc. The news will be a great way to gain some exposure to these topics. Adding on to learning about your society, you will also be able to have conversations with your friends on issues they may not know is going on! Sunday brunch will now have an additional conversation topic.
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3. You Can Become Invested in Other Mediums to Educate Yourself
Personally, when I first started reading and watching the news, I became interested in certain issues that I only followed one news source for it. Therefore, I do want to add that you can compliment your news reading with a book or podcast on that particular subject. The reason why is that it will help you expand your views with different perspectives, thus making you a well-rounded person to discuss a particular subject with because you are able to understand unique perspectives.
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4. You Begin to Realize How Much News Actually Affects Your Everyday Life
This point might be a little scary to think about it, but once you become involved in the news then it will be easier to pinpoint problems you see in the government or the manner a certain issue you are knowledgable is being handled. You can talk with your friends and family and help them develop their views as well.
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5. You Become an Involved Citizen
Learning about what’s happening in your city, your nation, or the world will cause you to want to promote some change. In order to do so, you have to be educated about what’s happening. And the awesome thing about learning is that the more you educate yourself, the more you can bring forth change. Change for those who do not have voices and those who are in the fight for their rights. You can help facilitate these rights by getting involved! And we love an educated, vocal young woman!
Ashley is a Political Science major, Law and Power Concentration and Journalism Minor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From Downtown Chicago, she enjoys traveling, lifting, reading and spending time with her loved ones. Her work ranges from fitness, to mental health, to politics and everything in between! Feel free to connect with her on Instagram and/or Linked-In.
