14 hours. That's how long it took for me to find out about the death of Prince. An amazing musician and a large part of my parents' lives, I mostly liked to talk about how beautiful he was and frequently expressed my amazement that humans could be so attractive. Regardless of why he was important to me, he was, by all accounts, of importance. All over the nation, all over the world, news has spread of his death, so why did it take so long to get back to me?
Believe it or not, this kind of thing happens all the time.
Maurice White from Earth, Wind and Fire died this February. I love this band, but naturally, I'm not finding out about the death of their lead singer until right now at 10:55 p.m. on the phone with my dad two months later. How is this possible, you ask? Well, college put me in a bubble in which homework, exams and weekend plans take up so much time and space that it's easy not to take note of the things happening in the outside world. Without cable television or a well kept Twitter account, I'm late in finding out about any number of things. If it doesn't pop up on my Facebook feed, said news will float gently under my radar until I happen upon a tabloid waiting in line at CVS.
That's wrong. I mean, I should know what's happening around me, if not just out of human curiosity, then out of human decency and as a member of a society. If I don't know what's happening in the world, how can I make decisions about what happens in it? There has to be some way to stay in the loop. Assuming you're in a similar situation, I've got a few pins to pop the college bubble right here.
Make a Twitter.
This tool, though dying out according to many, can help a lot when keeping up with the happenings of our society. A solid rule is to follow a few shameless gossip cites, a few credible news sources and a few friends that seem to know what's going on most of the time. This way you'll know when Kim Kardashian drops her latest "film," when the economy crashes overseas and when your friend from back home gets his wisdom teeth pulled (all equally relevant, obviously).
Subscribe.
You can subscribe by email to just about any news source if you Google "subscribe" and insert the name. Be it BBC, FOX, The New York Times, CNN or National Geographic, with daily or weekly emails from a few of these sources, there's no chance you'll be left out of the loop.
Google the word "news."
Remarkably enough, when you Google the word "news," the three most trending news articles pop right up. After a brief gaze over the titles, you can have a basic understanding of the world and it's recent struggles in a matter of seconds. So, when in doubt or boredom, Google "news" and you'll get caught right up.
Have it read aloud.
Let's be real, college kids read enough. So instead of reading an article, download one of many chrome apps to read it for you. "TTSreader.com" lets you copy and paste things to read and countless chrome apps and addons let you highlight and have anything on the webpage read to you.
Call home.
Just because you don't watch TV doesn't mean the rest of your family doesn't. While you're off studying calculus, someone back at home probably caught the news this morning. For another reason to call home every now and then, consider the added opportunity to be a little less oblivious to the world outside of college.
In an effort to become a more knowledgeable college student, global citizen and all around better person, I can agree to do at least two out of four of these things at some point in the next few days. I'll stay on the look out for more ways to stay in the loop. Until then, try not to get too far behind.
