Bubble Girl

Not gunna lie, while I was at college for four years, most of my news came from Facebook or through a spoof on College Humor. I was sheltered from the world, both physically and mentally. Physically, my campus was a self-sustaining unit on top of a hill, separated from the city below with some seriously steep steps. Mentally, I just did not watch the news. I did not read the newspaper, unless you count the crime log of the student paper. I did not check news websites. I was very uninformed. I always figured that, if it was really important for me to know (i.e., terrorists, war, giant asteroid crashing toward earth), I would hear about it some other way. For instance, I found out about Osama Bin Laden when I finished my semester-long software engineering project three seconds before it was due at midnight and walked outside for the first time in days to fireworks and drunk kids on the quad waving American flags while Public Safety looked on. So, you know, if it was important, I'd find out.

Every once in a while, I would have moments of panic when I realized just how out of touch I was with the world outside my college bubble. Someone would mention a political candidate (a lot of my friends watched Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, so they were at least getting the information somehow), and I would realize I had no idea who they were talking about.

Last summer, I had an internship and to pass the time in between tasks, I would spend hours on Google News. I knew all the political candidates, I knew all about the Casey Anthony trial, I knew about the debt ceiling, and most exciting of all, I actually had opinions. INFORMED opinions. And that felt powerful. But then of course, classes started again and I went back to my computer programming and my Glee nights.

So now that I'm out in the real world, killing time in the morning before I feel ready to actually start working, I'm back to my Google News. I'm back to my informed opinions.

But then I decided to watch some news on TV.

First, they had one little blurb about some recent figures that stated that America contains 5% of the world's population but a third of the world population's weight. Casual. No need to dwell over that TERRIFYING STATISTIC. *puts down ice cream, picks up Shake-Weight* And THEN, they proceeded to talk for AT LEAST five minutes about how Alec Baldwin punched a paparazzi.

Um. Alright, so I may not know much, but I know that there are more important things going on in America, in the world in general, than Alec Baldwin punching a paparazzi.

Maybe, while at college, I was not as out of touch with current events as I thought I was. Maybe I was even more in touch with what is actually going on in the world than people who get theirs news solely from news stations. So I didn't know who the political candidates are. Who cares? Does it really matter what they all stand for? None of them ever follow through anyway. But you know what I did know? I knew what it was like to be homeless. I volunteered at a homeless shelter and participated in Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week. Where is that on the 11 o'clock news? Know what else I know? About all the mass genocide going on all over the world. There was an Amnesty International club at college that downright shoved that information down my throat. But you know what? I'm glad they did. Ever hear about Darfur? Or Uganda? Or Rwanda? Yeah, the Holocaust was terrible, and we would never let something like that ever happen again. Except we do. Every day. If the twenty-first century.

So maybe when I was in college, I did not know the ins and outs of the NBA lockout or each politicians stance on birth control (since whether or not I have an illegitimate child is really going to affect anyone's life but my own) and gay marriage (or as I like to call it, marriage). Maybe I did not know about each and every gunshot fired in Philadelphia or that time this celebrity and that celebrity were caught holding hands. But I did learn about people. The kind of people that the news does not mention with near enough frequency. The people dying from AIDS and starvation and mass genocide all over the world. The people in our own communities who cannot support themselves or their families, who have children going to bed hungry and waking up hungry and remaining hungry all day while their neighbor has a six dollar latte. Did you know that SIX THOUSAND children die every day because they do not have access to safe drinking water? Yeah. Let that sink in.

But you know what I really wanna hear about? Let's interview the paparazzi that Alex Baldwin punched and decide if this is a growing trend among the A-listers. Fascinating.

Sorry to burst your bubble.