Recently I discovered the BuzzFeed news app, and quickly downloaded it to my iPhone. I very quickly regretted this decision, getting constant alerts about news stories gets annoying as well as confusing throughout the day. I turned off the notifications for the app and went about my daily routine.

During the next few weeks I was asked about many current events topics around the world, everything from U.S. Politics, to the mutilation of women in Burkina Faso. Unfortunately I was totally lost in these conversations, I didn’t even know what was going on in the world around me, but I could tell you the top vines of the week or what my friends in Colorado were doing via Instagram.

I turned the notifications back on and started to read just snippets of the world. Soon I was finding myself seeing headlines and then reading more and more about real issues. It made me realize that us, as students, are so focused on social media and entertainment news that we are completely scrolling and swiping past anything of real value. I’m going to encourage anyone who reads this that taking a few short minutes out of your day to catch up on current events in the news is more than worthwhile and beneficial.

Even if it seems as if it doesn’t affect us, in our little bubble of a life, it has a major impact. If we aren’t paying attention to what’s going on, what will happen when these issues start leaking into our boxed in lives?