As a millennial, I often think of myself as a well-informed person. I think most of my generation does — we have easy access to information and we have the ability to disseminate the information we receive to large portions of people through the use of social media.
However, there’s a glaring problem with only using social media to glean information (whether it be through first-hand accounts or through following news outlets): we tend to only see the big headlines, rehashed over and over again.
For example, I follow several newspapers, magazines and journalists, from U.S. government-centric outlets like Politico to worldwide sources, like Reuters, to arts and culture magazines like The Atlantic. While it would seem that the scope of information I get from these sources is broad, usually I end up seeing the same headlines several times over, each printed by a different source, each relaying the same information.
Usually,these headlines are considered front-page stuff, like “U.S. launches airstrike on Syria,” or “Erdogan wins big in referendum.” These stories are important of course, but do I really need to see them 20 times over?
Of course not.
The simple answer would be to stop following so many sources. The better answer? Subscribe to a newspaper.
With a newspaper subscription, there opens up a new realm of stories — stories that don’t make the front page.
Stories like “Sessions orders Justice Dept. to end forensic science commission, suspend review policy” will suddenly pop up on your radar, and you’ll gain a new understanding of what’s going on in your government, in your world. It won’t necessarily be the flashy stuff that catches most readers’ eyes. But is it important? Absolutely.
But who really wants to be ‘most readers’?
