Your Digital Self

When it comes to keeping up with the news, I wouldn’t say I’m the best at it. Most of the time, I find the news to be a little depressing and sad. While it is of the utmost importance to keep up with current events happening in the city, country, and the world, I find the news to be something I don’t necessarily want to consume on a daily basis. Most of the time, I get updates from my friends and family on things happening around the world, and occasionally I see a thing or two on social media, but I rarely go looking for it. When I do see a piece of news, I typically find it on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X, rather than watching the news on TV. In fact, I would say that most of the news that I individually consume would probably be from TikTok videos. All in all, I tend not to go out of my way to watch or read the news. Since the rapid growth of social media, most news outlets have had to transition to creating social media accounts in order to keep up with the users and have the ability to draw more eyes to their station. As we continue to become more technological, it seems that many people, specifically people around my age, get most of their news from social media platforms rather than the traditional platform of TV and newspapers. However, I have a much different relationship with sports news. I consume sports news too frequently, most would say. I check the ESPN app and website an unhealthy amount of times where I watch highlight videos, read articles, and check scores and stats of big games. I watch videos on YouTube breaking down games and talking about trades and roster moves. Needless to say, I’m a sports nut. With that being said, while I consume a lot of sports news, I don’t necessarily interact with it much. I don’t find myself posting comments, reposting, or contacting any reporters. The extent of my interaction is simply giving something a like on social media. Now of course, we live in a very technologically advanced society nowadays, and everyone has the ability to post just about anything. Because of this, news is becoming increasingly more difficult to verify and fact-check. Therefore, whether it’s sports news or regular news that I see on social media, I always make sure to double check and make sure that it’s true first. For example, if I see a video on TikTok talking about recent moves that the Trump administration has made, I always make sure to look for multiple sources that can confirm if it’s actually true or not. When it’s all said and done, aside from sports, I have a complicated relationship with the news. As previously mentioned, it’s very important to keep up with and report on current events happening in the world today, and even more important to make sure that the information is accurate and factual.