By: HANNAH DEMCHAK
Staff Writer
Look around in the library or your nearest coffee shop, and you are guaranteed to find some young college student aimlessly scrolling through their cellphone checking for updates on social media.
You might even be the one guilty of doing this daily, and it probably feels like second nature to check Facebook, CNN or Twitter every hour or so. Being glued to a screen has always had a bad reputation; people say it distracts us from the important things in life.
I started thinking about why our society is so attached to social media. What if the media aren’t so bad? We either want to see what is happening in the world, or we want the world to see what we are doing.
I think we take media for granted at times because we know that they will always report what is happening in the world to society. Take a moment and think about what would happen if we did not have Facebook or local and national news. We wouldn’t be able to see the pictures of our best friend’s ski trip that she could have uploaded to Instagram. We wouldn’t know what was happening in the 2016 presidential election. I wouldn’t have a clue about a school shooting that occurred on the other side of the country. There would be no way of knowing about the critical events occurring in our lives and others’ lives.
Then I thought about why I feel compelled to write. My conclusion is that I want the world to be informed, as I believe many of you also do.
Writing allows us to say what we want to say in our own unique way. We want our voices to be heard. You know that annoying conversation that you have with your family at cookouts when you can’t get a word in because your cousin is talking about her new job at a law firm? With writing, that kind of thing doesn’t happen. No one can interrupt you. Nobody can cut you off, and the spotlight is shining on you and only you.
I believe that I have never stopped writing throughout all of these years because I have this need to inform, to be heard and to be understood. I can take time away from my job, my schoolwork and my social life to give back to the community by reporting any relevant or even controversial news and entertaining people.
While I was in high school, my newspaper editor showed our class the song “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. The lyrics are, “Say what you want to say, and let the words fall out. Honestly, I want to see you be brave.” She told us to live by these words while we write, and just be brave with your writing. Never hold back.
I like the fact that there are people out there who are also like me, who feel the urge to tell the world about what is happening. Not only should we write about things we are interested in, but we should also write about things we know nothing about in order to learn about the world around us and see things from a neutral perspective. Writing allows us all to say what we want to say while keeping people up-to-speed, and I think that’s a beautiful thing to give to this world.
