World News

By Reese Hanna ‘27 in Summer 2025

Have you stopped reading the news? I certainly have. Have you opened your Instagram hoping for mindless reels or summer dumps, just to be met by devastating headlines? I tend to see this, switch over to Tiktok, get bored, switch back, and repeat. Have you checked your phone, hoping for a text or a chat, just to open notification after notification of comically intense updates from the New York Times, Apple News, or BBC? I debate silencing these apps everyday. But would that be a forfeit? As someone who can’t even vote yet, is choosing not to let frustration consume me the same as accepting my utter lack of control? In other words, is deciding not to read the news giving up? 

I believe that our democracy– something all Americans take pride in– is under attack. If you take a good look at your personal copy of the Constitution, it should be apparent that the state of our government is shifting. Which scares me! As young adults soon to live alone, navigate new places, and enter the workforce, the conditions of our country do affect us, even if it’s harder to notice when shielded by the bubble of Marin. 

Cutting funds for cancer research is not prideful. Refusing a woman's autonomy over her own body is not freedom. School shootings should not be a recurring tragedy so common they aren’t considered news anymore. I am so tired of it, of opening my phone every day to see even more of it, and I am only 16 years old. 

For some, reading the news has never been a part of the daily flow. For others, it still is, quite literally because it’s imperative to stay in the loop for work or for safety. For me, I’m not sure how it fits into my life. Is choosing not to read the news a privilege? Or is choosing abstinence necessary for one's mental health?