Rose Bialk/The Mossy Log
The last issue of The Mossy Log featured an article about the importance of detaching oneself from news cycles to preserve “peace of mind.” While I agree that mental health must be tended to in times of mass distress, I strongly believe that this rhetoric of detaching from news cycles is dangerous and is indicative of a larger issue: a cultural lack of both literacy and empathy, all made more severe when combined with rising anti-intellectualism.
Let us tackle the former: Our generation’s literacy rates are dwindling — the National Literacy Institute reports that 54% of U.S. adults read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. Not only are literacy rates declining, trust in media has plummeted as well, shown in a Gallup poll published this October that reports that a meager 28% of US adults expressed trust in news sources. Our democracy is dependent on citizens remaining informed. Civic education is essential to voting, and in recent years, there has been a shift towards believing education is worthless outside of job training. Undervaluing the role of education in a complex society is destructive, and we are not raising enough alarm at this trend. In the rising tide of fascism, literacy is more important now than ever. We cannot turn a blind eye to the countless injustices in the world, especially those committed and aided by our own country.
Anti-intellectualism — a mistrust and rejection of modern intellect, knowledge and academia — is rampant. On Oct. 2, President Donald Trump asked nine major universities to commit to his “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” plan, in which he lays out his agenda for these universities to conform to policy similar to that of the political initiative Project 2025. It asks these institutions to cap their international enrollment and even targets his favorite scapegoat: transgender women. Trump has pledged that an acceptance of these demands will be rewarded with additional federal funding. On Oct. 10, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology became the first on that list to deny those demands, later followed by Dartmouth College on Oct. 18.
In a society with dwindling literacy that has come to distrust academia and systems that foster intelligence, we as media consumers must step up to the plate and dial into the news. Especially in the era of a tyrannical presidential administration, the news cannot be summed up when you “skim the news articles or the headlines,” as the author of last issue’s article argued. Yes, headlines are designed to capture your attention and give a brief display of information, but that is not news. There is no news without nuance, and it cannot be comprehended within the span of one sentence. It is a crucial skill as a member of our modern digital society to be able to carefully and critically engage with text. We are practically swimming in content — be it infographics on social media, billboards, advertisements, television, emails or newspapers like The Mossy Log — we must be able to wade through it and make sense of it all.
I agree that “there is minimal enjoyment in stress and displeasure at your surroundings,” yet that does not negate the importance of remaining informed. The news is not going to be sunshine and rainbows every day. If you have the desire to limit your media intake to positive and uplifting stories, I urge you to balance it with a dose of reality, no matter how painful that may be.
By no means am I advocating for a perpetual stream of negativity. Rather, I am arguing that we should place importance on analyzing the bigger picture. The news is duplicitous; there is very rarely a black-and-white narrative that can be summarized in a single headline. You cannot simultaneously strive for “general awareness” and deny the importance of slowing down to thoughtfully analyze what you are reading. I find it incredibly alarming that our generation is becoming increasingly disinterested in staying informed. I believe many are not just adverse to reading the news, they are also unable and unwilling to comprehend complexity.
I also find this anti-news trend speaks to an aforementioned lack of empathy. I frequently see my peers detach themselves from the stories of those in struggle simply because they do not believe that it holds relevance in their lives. While it can be argued that we as consumers should only concern ourselves with what impacts our day-to-day lives, I believe that this is immensely harmful and reductive.
Our struggles do not exist in a vacuum. They are not singular, they are deeply interconnected. Staying informed in this complex world is imperative. We should not label human lives lost as “other” or “external” to ourselves. We all play a role, and we must not allow ourselves to reduce our lives down to being a complacent bystander.
Our empathy should not be selective — we are all human. We can all stand to benefit from a reminder of our shared humanity across and in between borders. As a white, able-bodied and cisgender woman living in a blue state with access to reproductive healthcare, I can easily forget the harsh and life-threatening realities women across the country face based solely on my geographic privilege. In that same light, I can tune out news of atrocities in Congo and what mulitple UN commissions have ruled as genocide in Gaza, simply because I decide hearing the news is too hard on my mental well-being.
While the instant gratification of ignoring the news is “peace,” it does not last. We can log out of news apps, turn our phones off and momentarily find bliss in ignorance, yet our reality stays the same. Ignorance is not bliss; it is privilege, as is that fleeting comfort. Our ability to simply detach from current events that do not cause direct personal harm is a privilege.
In our ever-changing world, we must remain in tune with our surroundings. Placing our heads in the sand and blocking the news out does not solve any problems, and it does not provide lasting comfort.
About the Author
Wow! What a well written and timely article. Low information voters are the reason for the current political climate in your country. Too many people just read the headlines, if anything at all.