The news keeps you informed on what is happening in the world. It can also help you make important decisions as to who to vote for and whether or not to support a cause. The more information you consume, the more knowledgeable you are.

Some people feel the news is irrelevant and avoiding it at all costs is the best way to live life. Avoiding the news does not make it go away; it only keeps you uninformed. The news is important for everyday life.

“I think if you stay away from the news you might be a happier person, but it would just be because you’re kind of ignorant to what’s going on and you’d be really uninformed,” said sophomore communication studies major Garrett Hawkins.

Choosing not to keep up with the news can make you feel better because you don’t hear about depressing topics such as death, war and poverty, but not hearing about them means you don’t know exactly how bad some people have it. Knowing these tragedies can help you appreciate your life.

Without the news, you don’t know what’s going on and if you don’t know what’s going on you can make uninformed decisions that can negatively affect you.

As a citizen you are entitled to rights. Politicians make decisions that can affect those rights, so it is important to know who is in charge and what his or her plans are for your community. Being informed can lead you to a better vote.

“You can’t make an educated vote if you aren’t educated about the subject,” said junior business administration major Grant Glazer. “If you’re voting for something you have no idea about, you could be actually hurting yourself and you don’t even know it.”

Whether it is big decisions such as voting on gun control or small decisions like what to eat, the news helps form answers.

For instance, the weather report can tell you what roads to avoid because of a traffic accident or what clothes to wear to school. The news can also tell you about the latest outbreak of E. coli and what foods to avoid. Keeping up with the news can help you to avoid or deal with unexpected circumstances.

The news also provides a platform for social interactions. It is a good way to start a conversation and meet new people. Not everyone may know about a recent event, but if you do you can use the knowledge to pass on information to other people.

Job interviews may need you to state why you want to work there and what you know about the company. Keeping up with current events can also help you land a job because outlets often report which companies are hiring or which jobs pay well.

Avoiding the news is not beneficial for your life, but overconsuming is not good either.

When you constantly take in news you can form an over-hyped view of the world. People may feel their neighborhood is unsafe because they’ve spent all day reading the crime reports of a newspaper.

“I feel like people who consume too much television news can have an overall pessimistic mindset on issues in general,” said senior mechanical engineering major Troy Hart.

People should take the news in with moderation to avoid overloading on information. Overloading leads you to wanting to know every detail of what the news is reporting, which causes you to spend more time absorbing it than actually retaining what you read or hear.

Filtering what you read lets you choose what is important to pay attention to. Otherwise you just end up with a whole bunch of information that may not all be relevant for you.

“Take everything with a grain of salt, really; be able to put everything in perspective. (You should) get your news from different sources; don’t depend on one source,” Glazer said.

Events happen every day, which creates news. While you should not over-consume the news, you should not avoid it either because that makes you ignorant. Take the news in moderation to be an informed citizen of today’s world.