8. Keeping Up with the News

All the way through high school, and even through my first year of college, I didn't ever pay attention to the news, except for the little notifications that popped up on the desktop computer at home. Whenever I would look at the news, it would always just leave me feeling depressed, so I preferred not to watch it and instead would either skim the front page of the newspaper or know that my family would be talking if anything was noteworthy enough to hear about.

I'm sure quarantine has brought about a lot of changes in everyone's lives. For me, one of those changes was that I started actively watching the news. I knew that I couldn't escape being blissfully ignorant anymore, and while it certainly can be depressing, if I'm going to be stuck in this country for many more years I should at least know what's going on within it. In addition to that, though, I think—especially this year—that no matter what your beliefs are, it's important to watch news and have conversations not just with people who you agree with but also with people who you don't. In spite of anything else, we're all human and we all have the same basic needs and deserve the same basic rights.

I had a year drought where I literally did not read news, especially from the "leading" news site in Israel, because I got fed up with how consistent the headlines were, and they never changed. I could feel my blood boil within seconds of opening and reading it.

And I got to the same conclusion: I need to at least 'keep' up , so even if not once a day, at least 2-3 times a week.

So I came back and opened them up and holy heck did my blood boil instantly. Same BS or worse. It is just depressing to see the state of the government and overall population. Sometimes it just isn't worth reading the news.

"Have conversations not just with people who you agree with but also with people who you don't" - In Israel this could easily lead to death. I've read enough arguments on dumb shit that resulted in people dead. Guess it depends on your country.

"We're all human and we all have the same basic needs and deserve the same basic rights." - Oh boy do I know governments and political groups that are doing their darnest (and managing successfully) to make that not happen.