I’ve been subscribed to the Washington Post’s email updates since eighth grade. Crazy, right? If I were to scroll through my inbox from years ago, there would be a bunch of unread The Fix articles or acknowledged Breaking News headlines that just kind of sit there and take up space. To be honest, I subscribed because I did an extemporaneous speech for my school’s forensics team, and I had to keep on top of news or I would lose, lose, lose (I still did, but that’s for a different reason).

Now that I’m in college, the bonuses of email updates are much more clear. And, I’ve added BBC News and The New York Times to the list of news sources that have my email. I’ll probably add more over time, but it’s taken me this long to see the light -- hopefully, your journey won’t be a five-year one like mine. So let me explain to you why I think every single person with an email account and an emotional and mature ability to read and understand current events should keep abreast of the world.

First of all, college is a bubble.

You may not realize it now with the social media platforms the older generations grumble at us about, but college separates you from the "real world," even as you prepare for it. There are days you can spend without leaving the dorm, and you don’t necessarily need a job, and your friends are in the general vicinity.

There’s a lot of opportunity to just bury your head and pretend the outside world doesn’t exist. In fact, it’s what a lot of people do -- focus on the here and now, the student life, and classes. Days can pass without people thinking of the rest of the world, or even the city just beyond campus. But we’re so connected to our technology and our phones that getting email updates is extremely useful for tapping, well, away from college and into our surroundings. Even if you don’t read the emails, they’ll keep sending them, daily or weekly notifications that things are happening, and you don’t want to miss them.

Second, you can hear a lot more opinions with text than other media forms.

There are only so many people that can be on the television or be well-known YouTube reporters. Print (by which I mean newspapers, both digital and physical) allows for a greater incorporation of various people and ideas from around the world. It’s a platform for literally anybody, be they graduates of Mizzou who have spent years integrating themselves into a culture, or somebody who lives in your hometown, working for the local rag. Email, rather than the TV or radio, links you to the websites that can hold exponentially more information than a printed newspaper. Print is still great, don’t get me wrong, but incorporating columns and articles on the web means that you can fit in more.

Getting emails straight to your inbox about things you’re interested in, be it regional, sports, fashion, what have you, means that you don’t have to flip through channels or pages in hopes they’ll be talking about what you want to hear. It gives you the ability to customize your input even as you learn and keep updated in the world. And from the various types of people you can hear from working for The New York Times, BBC, or Al Jazeera, you can learn even more.

Third, more reading is better writing.

This is a thing I’ve heard from every single professor that asked me to write an essay for them. The more you read (and the wider range of reading) will translate into better writing for you, and it can happen even without you noticing. Journalists are trained at what they do, and their writing goes through a long, harsh process of editing before it sees the light of day, and that editing can sink its way into your brain, too. With email updates, you can get either actual articles or links to them in your inbox, and you’ll doubtlessly be inspired to read more and find out things. Sure, looking at that cute cat video is fun on Facebook, but so could be reading about how New York’s Chinatown has stayed itself over the years or finding out about the Ancient Egyptian fingerprints found on a sarcophagus.

Even if you’re not a big reader, you’re reading this, aren’t you? It means you’re willing enough to read the written word on the internet, and getting email updates straight to you will link you to the world of news you can get lost in just as easy as you can in YouTube.

I encourage you to just sign up to even one news agency -- not too many at first, or you’ll get overwhelmed by their enthusiasm for the outside world -- and see what they have to say. There are a lot more benefits to keeping up with the news, but I don’t have time to tell you all of them. After all, there’s news you’ve got to keep up with!