Reading and/or Watching the News is important

DefinitionsInformed - having information about events that may or may not be relevant to an individual or group of individuals. Superficial - surface knowledge of a topic that gives a brief overview, and doesn't go in-depth. Social Currency - having enough knowledge about a topic to speak about it in casual conversation. I. The Value of being InformedIn this modern age, there really isn't a plausible excuse to not be informed on the major issues in our society. The speed at which information travels has exceptionally increased to the click of a mouse. There are obvious reasons why we need to be informed about pressing events, such as severe weather, food contamination and vehicle recalls. When disaster strikes, surely the time and location of the event will eventually reach your ears but why be the last to know. Be prudent and read or watch the news so that you can be prepared, well ahead of the time when a disaster arrives. Being informed about what takes place in your local community is very important. Events that take place in your immediate area are more likely to be relevant to you, so that adds a higher value to browsing through your local paper. In fact, there was once a construction company drilling underground by my neighborhood for some type of sewer maintenance. For some reason this caused dirty water to run out of all the faucets for a short period of time when turned on. When this happened I was really shocked and in disbelief until my dad told me that they sent a notice in the local paper about it. From this example, you can see that I was not informed about a event that was relevant to me, ultimately leaving me unprepared. Reading your local news also allows you to find out about clubs or organization that might interest you and this can lead to forming relationships among the members in your community. Strong community bonds can lead to the exchange of ideas that could form potential answers for the problems a community faces; in fact, having a network of people engaged in activities together can lead to lower crime rates, better health, and higher learning [1]. II. Forming OpinionsIn order to have an opinion about something, you first need to know something about it and reading the news can be the initiator in forming opinions about issues in our society. Even if the particular news article you are reading only gives a superficial view of the topic, at least now you know something about the topic and can do further research if it interests you. That's the point, the news is categorized into different topics that give superficial articles to plant the seeds of an opinion in the reader. I do realize that some broadcasting networks have agendas that attempt to sway the reader's opinion in a certain direction, but guess what, that's not a secret and I feel as though any reader will know this and should take the steps to cultivate their own opinion from research. III. Social CurrencyReading the news gives you social currency, in the sense that communicating with someone about a topic that you have enough knowledge to talk about is a transaction. Even if you only have superficial knowledge of the topic at the moment, that should be enough for casual conversation. Having this social currency allows you to bring up topics when the conversation has gone dry, allowing the people involved to continue conversing to prevent moments of awkward silence. In fact, good conversational flow has a powerful effect on our self-esteem and belonging in an environment [2]. If you don't want to feel left out in a new environment with people you don't normally associate with, then it is a good idea to have social currency so that you can communicate. [1] . http://www2.ca.uky.edu...[2] . http://healthland.time.com...