Letter from the Managing Editor: Do what you can

ABBY ANN RAMSEY Managing Editor

Last week, Paramore released a new album for the first time in five years, titled “This Is Why.” In their video on Spotify introducing the album, lead singer Hayley Williams explains the inspiration for the album as a whole.

“This album is a culmination of a lot of lessons learned over the last four or five years, some that are really personal, and some that are part of a bigger picture that I think we’re all engaged in at some point in and out of the social happenings, political happenings and it being too much some days,” Williams said. “And then at the same time always having your own experience and your own personal stuff to overcome. It’s just the balance of both of those.”

I watched this video before listening to the album but didn’t think much of it. That was until I understood everything she meant when I listened to the second track titled “The News,” which was simultaneously deeply relatable and heartbreaking to me.

“Every second, our collective heart breaks/ All together, every single head shakes/Shut your eyes, but it won’t go away/(Turn on, turn off, the news),” Williams sings.

The news is constant and rarely feels encouraging. No one can keep up with the sheer amount of content that’s made every day. And while feeling burnt out by the news is not a new problem, it felt especially true to me during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the aftermath.

I was a senior in high school, editor of the school paper, telling everyone I’d major in journalism at UT to pursue my dream of being a reporter. Yet, after March 2020, I got so sick of news I could only read headlines. And honestly, I’d do my best to avoid even headlines.

Looking back, I think the main thing that deterred me was that I felt like there was pressure to read every single thing. I’m a bit of an all or nothing person, so my thought process was, “Once I read one article, I’ll have to read them all.” So instead of catching up on the news once or twice a week, I literally blocked it out of my brain as much as I could.

I eventally got back to my usual self, but it was hard for me to learn that I didn’t have to read, watch and listen to everything. Moderation in news consumption was a foreign concept to me.

Now, I try my best to give myself grace when the only information I’ve read is from a news source’s Instagram caption, reminding myself that I can go back and learn more when I catch a breath and when it doesn’t feel so draining.

People say journalism is dying and that Gen Z kids have never heard of a newspaper — which by the way is not only untrue, but is a pretty lazy joke, if you ask me — but the truth is content is growing at a rapid speed. It’s just not the same as it used to be.

Don’t be ashamed to use the tools we have, like Twitter and TikTok, to consume media. Just make sure you’re still checking that the information is reliable and try to remind yourself to do some more research when it doesn’t feel like the world is crashing down around you.

I still go through phases where I want to avoid everything, refusing to open my social media apps when I see the red Apple bubble showing how many notifications I have. But I try to remember that even a sliver of my time spent gathering reliable information is better than none at all.