This year, I had the opportunity to work a short shift at Tuesday’s annual Wellness Fair for The Gannon Knight.
While at the event, I got to have a look at all of the different organizations and clubs across campus. Who even knew we had a fishing club?
Although the event was interactive and fun, it also gave me a lot of time to think about how many students may not even know that The Gannon Knight exists.
I have heard too many times that some students just simply don’t know we exist.
It is slightly disheartening knowing that there are people who don’t know about the hard work the staff puts in each week to produce the paper.
I know how much time it takes the staff to create something that we are proud of.
I have to wonder why it is that students don’t seem to want to take the time to read the paper if they do know about it.
Being on staff, I am always curious to ask around if anyone read anything that interested them in the latest issues and it always feels like a low blow when people tell me they didn’t read the issue, or worse, they just don’t care.
It makes me wonder if this is the case with news outside of our small paper.
I wonder if students, or even just young adults in general, just don’t care enough to read the news anymore.
As someone who hopes to write for the rest of her life, I genuinely wonder what changed between the generations who relied on reading the paper to stay updated and our current generation.
It worries me that my generation relies so heavily on the news we see online and nothing else because I feel as though we only want to read the good news or the news about celebrities.
In reality, not many people ever want to read the bad news or the news that would stress them out in any way.
I think reading the news online allows us to block out the real issues.
There is something about opening up a newspaper that makes you want to read things you wouldn’t be drawn to typically.
When you open up a paper and read a headline that strikes a certain nerve, I feel like it makes you want to read on even if the story may not be positive after all.
I think our generation is more afraid of the news than ever before and that is why so many people act as though they don’t care. People no longer trust the news sources.
People would rather read about Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy than about the latest world events and that is absolutely terrifying to me, both as a future journalist and a person.
I hope the current generation will soon understand just how important the news can be.
Understanding the news and being aware of our current situations will only help us in the long run.

HARLEE BOEHM
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