en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2453687 Comments by Prodigy23 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/14/why-dont-we-know/#IDComment122901806 I am a firm believer that we as individuals choose to know what we want to know. The reason that I say this is because all too often we let the media, our schooling, and our peers shape our opinions and views concerning various world topics. Our media places a large focus and portion of their time on what sells or better yet what would attract individuals to watch their respective networks. Oftentimes, these stories are celebrity gossip, natural disasters, and really big local catastrophes. I cant ever remember watching the news or reading an article about sweatshops overseas. This is clearly because the United States does not want to expose its businesses and in turn have these businesses being a representation of the country. However, whether or not I have seen this in the news does not mean that is has to be me only way to be informed about what is going on in the world. Rather than visiting social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, individuals should take time to read New York Times articles or look at global sites such as CNN. Rather than reading Sports Illustrated or ESPN magazines, individuals should be subscribing to TIME magazine or Newsweek. Yes, these magazines all come from a subjective perspective however they are often portraying stories across this world that students in our age bracket aren’t focusing on at all. Many of the issues in this world don’t directly affect us as Americans and so we don’t ever take the time to ask ourselves what we can do to help each other, humanity. Our concerns, although they should be focused in our country, need to have a global focus as well. There are so many countries in this world that need our help and the only times that we help or place a focus on these countries and individuals are when disasters occur. Case and point is clearly shown with the tragedy and earthquake that occurred last January in Haiti. Haiti has consistently been one of the poorest countries in the world and it is not too far away from Florida. The aid and attention for Haiti was almost minimal to the point that I firmly believe younger generations could not identify where on a map Haiti is. However, after the earthquake, the United States and its citizens sent much aid and money over to Haiti. Disasters such as this makes one think what if we all cared just as much when disasters occurred even when they didn’t occur. The world would certainly be a much better place and we could all understand each other more. Capitalism has instilled such a caste system within the world that we think we are much better than everyone else. Conversely, everyone needs to realize that we are all humans and if we took the time to ensure all humans were as blessed as us or at least taking strides to making their lives better the world would be an amazing place. Sat, 22 Jan 2011 02:34:37 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/14/why-dont-we-know/#IDComment122901806 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cm%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment122809984 soc119 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:31:22 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cm%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment122809984