Perhaps the most shocking transition from home to university life has not been the food, the close quarters, or even the workload. No, what has been the most notable change has been the fact that I never know what’s going on. I don’t get a newspaper every day, and wouldn’t’ have the time to read it if I did. I’m pretty sure my roommates and I only invested in the TV so we could watch Lost every week, and my browser bookmarks are reserved for things like Facebook and Fmylife.com, not the Globe and Mail or CBC.
I’m a fan of monotony. I like getting up and going to class every day, completing assignments, writing tests, and going to bed just to do it all over again. It’s so much easier to put the blinders on and focus on what is relevant to me here and now.
And in a way, that makes sense.
I’m not going to change the world. My knowledge of world politics wont get me much past the next cocktail party (which I don’t even get invited to). When it comes right down to it, the news that is really going to affect me is the news that is directly related to what I study, who I study it from, and who I’m going to be using that knowledge to help later on. The news that really should matter to me is the news about new learning systems, cognitive studies, and language trends, because that is the news that I am going to use to change other people’s lives. By turning a critical eye on the subjects that I know best, and can use my expert knowledge to question and review, I can make a definite difference. It may not bring about widespread change, but it will hopefully bring about change for someone.
What I want to say is that news and information has the power to drastically change an individual’s life. And although that may not be the change everyone is talking about these days, nor the change people will come to remember, it’s the change that we will see every day, and the change that everyone has the opportunity to make.
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