By Megan Davis |Staff Writer|
Several big news stories broke out last week. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency David Petraeus has resigned following his affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell.
Israel has opened fire onto Gaza according to CNN, releasing more than 115 rockets.
Understandably these stories have fallen to the wayside for many, since the earth-shattering news of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez splitting up hit the airwaves and the Twitter feeds on Nov. 10.
“Students on campus seem to have no idea what’s going on outside what’s happening in the pop culture world. So two kids broke up. Who cares? Please tell me why that matters,” said student Jessica Martinez.
I’m not at all saying the key figures in the entertainment field are unimportant in general.
These actors and musicians and social media figures are prominent in our world and have a vast influential pull over the American audience.
This influence can be great, especially when it comes to human interest organizations, such as the new “Got your 6” campaign backed by names like Alec Baldwin and Sarah Jessica Parker that aims to bridge the civilian-military divide.
However in this day and age students need to pull their noses out of People and Ok! Magazine long enough to gain some insight of the important issues going on in our country as well as globally.
Instead people read articles about which stars are getting divorced after three months, who is having a baby or why Taylor Swift can’t keep a man.
“I try to keep up on what is happening in America and the rest of the world but it just doesn’t interest me that much. I like hearing about stars and what they’re up to because I watch their movies and listen to their music. I feel more connected to them,” said student Casey Reid.
This is exactly why magazines and online news providers are making their headlines consist of meaningless gossip; that’s what people are interested in.
If they made their headlines always read about important issues their sales and the attention of consumers would drop dramatically.
Unfortunately we as a school and our country as a whole cannot afford to be as blissfully ignorant as we’d like to be.
One of the best things we can do as citizens is stay involved and stay informed.
Stay up to date on what our President plans to do with our country even now that the election has passed.
Stay informed about international issues like China and the new leadership reign that is about to take over in their country.
Even if you want to step away from politics and global issues, stay abreast of the real art and entertainment world.
Films being produced through festivals like Sundance, including the critically acclaimed new release “28 Hotel Rooms” detailing an intimate love affair and the effects of their intoxication of passion and guilt or “Chasing Ice” a film showcasing a group of men documenting our changing climate in the Arctic are more newsworthy than Justin Bieber’s love life.
These are the types of things that should be making daily headlines by Yahoo! or US Magazine and all the other media outlets available.
Instead they are being eclipsed by the mundane ordeals of teen sensations and the same tedious, idle gossip that realistically has no impact on any of your lives whatsoever.