It’s time to stop acting like we know and start reading

I’ve heard it time and time again that Gen Z is “overexposed” to the happenings of the world. 

Because we’re always on our phones, there’s absolutely no way we can avoid it. And that impression is normally validated by the fact that most young people can tell you an interesting tidbit on just about any breaking news story. 

As a member of Gen Z, I’d like to say that is really not true. 

While we most definitely are on our phones every chance we get, that doesn’t mean Gen Z is doing deep-diving, news research. 

Even I, a member of the journalism world, do not spend nearly enough time reading the news. 

As much as I love my job, when I’m on my phone I don’t want to look at how our world is continuing to get worse. I’ve already spent so many hours of my day consuming new information – the last thing I want to do is consume more. 

I want to relax and unwind. 

I know I can’t be alone in this. Take a look at your screen time, Gen Z. What app is the one you spend the most time on? Why do I have a feeling it’s most likely TikTok? Don’t worry, that’s mine too. I’ve become addicted to the app in the last year.

And maybe this is bad for of our generation. 

We’re so wrapped up in the entertainment social media platforms offer that we don’t dig deep into the issues that are plaguing our country at any given moment. 

The only news we know is the stuff that lands on our For You Pages and even that is just a catchy headline and the most click-worthy bits of information to keep you watching for a couple of minutes. 

We are rarely sitting down and looking at multiple news sources, trying to wrap our heads around a news story. 

But why is that? Shouldn’t the generation that has any information they want readily available to them at the touch of a button be the most informed? 

Well, perhaps it’s that overexposure that keeps us from going out and looking for information. There is so much noise on the internet that, rather than trying to decipher what is true and what isn’t, we ignore the information altogether because we’ve learned to. 

We gather the stuff we can from our comfort apps so if someone asks us about it, we can give a brief answer and give off the appearance that we actually know what we’re talking about. 

After all, any young person hates looking uninformed.  

But in reality, if we were to be handed a test about this week’s news cycle, we’d all probably fail. The flashy headlines only get us so far. 

So maybe we should try to seek information out more often. Maybe, instead of relying on social media for the news, we take a step out of our comfort zones and do our research. 

Let’s pick up a copy of a newspaper – the one you’re reading now is a great starting place – and take a look at some of the issues that are happening in our world. Take a look at some of the sections that you don’t normally read and find out what’s happening.

 That way, when people ask us our opinions, we actually have an informed and beneficial answer. 

We’re the generation that is supposed to have the answers to everything and fix the problems left behind by past generations, maybe it’s time we start doing our research.