Social media news has made us apathetic
We’ve convinced ourselves that knowing the surface level of our society’s daily news is enough, that we’ve abandoned the shovel and the genuine human curiosity to know more. And through it, we’ve shot ourselves in the foot, able to answer, “have you heard about this in the news?” but not, “what do you think about it? How does it make you feel?”
As a 20-year-old college student, checking the news faster than my thumb can scroll is perfect for my fast-paced lifestyle — or so I've convinced myself. Since high school, I've stayed updated in between classes with a quick search of my preferred news outlet, taking no more than five minutes to scroll.
This summer, after landing a job as a media/ social media intern at a big climate policy nonprofit, I took a closer look at my own social media habits — as well as those of my peers. As part of my job, I skim headlines daily, enough to be familiar with what's happening in the news, but not enough to have a genuine understanding of its importance. The issue is: this wasn't a new feeling for me. The innate and autopilot action of learning “just enough” about the news stemmed from an earlier habit of mine, consuming news on social media.
Within the last few decades, consuming news has moved from reviewing the Sunday paper and watching the world news at 6 p.m. to a new frontier: our cell phones. We sit on public transportation scrolling through our feed to read about events affecting more than thousands, and at times, millions of people condensed and summarized into brief headlines and 280 characters.
We don't receive awards or trophies for being mildly involved in the news circulation (besides saying, “I saw that!” when popular news topics are brought up in conversation). In fact, I'd argue that social media's accessible nature for finding news has made us complacent with a negative trait: apathy.
It's not that we don't care about what's happening, but this “life hack” of speedily consuming news without the effort of reading full-length articles or watching long videos relinquishes our desire to want to learn more. We've convinced ourselves that knowing the surface level of our society's daily news is enough, that we've abandoned the shovel and the genuine human curiosity to know more. And through it, we've shot ourselves in the foot, able to answer, “have you heard about this in the news?” but not, “what do you think about it? How does it make you feel?”
This man-made apathy can be easily replaced with a different trait: our innate curiosity. Instead of cutting out social media, take advantage of its quick and accessible headlines as starting blocks to learn more. Social media is convenient, but it's also easy.
I'm asking you to dive deeper.
Maybe this means listening to a podcast to learn more behind the headlines. Or, for others, it means igniting conversations with a friend, family member, or neighbor about what you read. Above all of this, it's applying your newfound knowledge and advocating for what you believe in: from voting and volunteering to donating to a nonprofit. Our apathy and avoidance to putting in extra effort is what inhibits our society from creating change, but through tapping into our empathy, there is hope for the change we're desperately seeking.