We live in a world driven by instant information 24 hours a day. Gone are the days when families sit around a television or radio and listen to the news. I don’t have cable, so I seek out the news daily online. From time to time, I have to step away from the news because of how destructive people can be and how often people harm each other for reasons they feel are important, but reasons that we as spectators don’t fully understand. The more aware I become, the more I see how much hurt there is in the world. The root cause of harmful words and violence is from people who are hurting inside. I sometimes feel like I am the only one that notices the hurt in others; not just the hurt in strangers, but friends too.

Information is readily available, but it seems like we gravitate toward superficial news over news that is shaping our world and the future for the next generation. This scares me. We have moved from being an active audience to a passive one. News no longer impacts us, it is now like an ambient noise that plays in the background of our lives–a noise we no longer hear.