Since jump­ing off of social media, I have been read­ing more. Specif­i­cally, I have been read­ing books. In addi­tion to revis­it­ing the library, I resumed print sub­scrip­tions to The Wash­ing­ton Post and the Sun­day New York Times. I still look at my fair share of news online, but there’s some­thing really spe­cial, and a bit nos­tal­gic, about read­ing the newspaper.

I was taken back the other day when some­one com­mented, when I asked if she wanted part of my news­pa­per, that she doesn’t pay atten­tion to the news. Call me judg­men­tal, but I think fail­ing to keep up with, or seem­ingly not care about, the news is not some­thing to proudly state out loud. Now I’m not sug­gest­ing that other should or must read the paper, not am I talk­ing about being, or becom­ing, a news junkie. Just be aware. If news­pa­pers aren’t your thing, that’s cool. There are plenty of news out­lets on TV and online.

I think con­sciously ignor­ing what’s going on locally, nation­ally, or glob­ally, effec­tively elim­i­nates your right to com­plain. I say this not sim­ply as a pun­ish­ment for being will­ing myopic and igno­rant, but because any opin­ions expressed will have been devel­oped purely by con­jec­ture — not fact. Of course, it’s debat­able just how much fact we actu­ally get through the news, but that’s a sub­ject for another post.