With the endless streams of media and news at our fingertips, who has time to sort through hundreds of articles in order to stay on top of current events? Add in the hustle & bustle of your everyday life, the news might then be the last thing on your mind. There are 5 solutions to these problems, however. They will increase your efficiency with the countless hours you spend on your device and guarantee easy access to the issues in our world today. Above all, you can get your daily fix of celebrity Twitter fights and Donald Trump. (Or whatever else news reporters focus on- IF they focus on anything else!)
1. Download your favorite news apps
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It’s no breaking story how integrated technology and digital media are in our lives, but note our phones and computers aren’t just for Snapchat, slaving away on a Word Document, or watching cute animal videos. Apps like CNN, BBC News, TIME Mobile, and Google News & Weather can be very useful when you have time to spare on the way to school. For fun and easy-to-read content, the Thought Catalog and Elite Daily apps are the way to go. There are so many more outlets to choose from, so head over to your App Store and download away! With just a few clicks, you’ll have the day’s trending news right before your eyes.
2. Like/follow/subscribe to news accounts on social media
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I don’t know about you, but if I’m not checking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube (in that order!) at least a thousand times a day, something’s wrong. The beautiful thing about social media is that everyone has one in some form or another. A simple like to your favorite news outlets on Facebook can easily lead to following them on Twitter, which can lead to a simple follow on Instagram, which means subscribing to their… do you see what I mean? If it’s that simple to like/follow/subscribe to BuzzFeed, let’s say, imagine what will happen when you do so for other news resources. My tip, though, when doing this is to limit the accounts to the ones whose content you won’t mind seeing all the time. While you are used to posting 2-5 tweets per day, these accounts could be at 10-20. The bright side is you’ll never run out of content, and YOU are ultimately the one who decides whose news you will see.
3. Schedule time for TV or radio news reports
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As someone who finds herself leaving the house early and coming home late, breakfast and dinner time become the prime times in the day for me to just eat and listen to/watch the news. Whether it be watching Breakfast Television Calgary at 5:30 am or Global News Calgary at 6 pm, or turning up 660 NEWS, I am immersed in the news for that day and then discussing it with my parents. Setting aside even 30 minutes (where it’s convenient) is enough and will keep you in-the-know!
4. Find apps and websites that summarize daily news
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I am a huge fan of anything that gets to the gist of what is happening. Creative and resourceful apps such as Flipboard, Circa, and Pulse allow you to not only read current events, but let you choose from different categories or tags which news appear on your feed! A list of more apps can be found here. If that’s not enough, infoplease has everything you need to stay updated.
5. Discuss current events with others
My Social Studies teachers in the past years have told my class to keep up with current events. I never realized the importance of it until I found myself thoroughly enjoying watching the news with my family and wanting to make it a part of my daily routine. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you have people in your life who are as into news as you are. If that’s the case, do not hesitate to ask them about their opinion on what’s going on in the world. You gain immense knowledge and understanding this way. As well, they could be your gateway to news you might have overlooked. Especially during certain classes, you could be spending 10-20 minutes on just discussing the news, which I see as nothing but beneficial. Even in the most casual conversations, there’s time to discuss pop culture or politics.
Best wishes,
Kandace 🙂