Living in the College Bubble
Chris Denu
Issue date: 5/6/09 Section: Opinion
St. Norbert College, like most institutions of higher learning, is its own world. It is in its own "college bubble" that secludes it from the outside world. Everything is on campus, or extremely close to it, and venturing out into the "real" world isn't necessary.
But when interaction with the outside world doesn't occur, one can become disillusioned about what is really going on. One can become so caught up with school and other things that they sometimes forget that there are other things going on in the world outside of the college bubble.
Before coming to school, I often watched the news every day and checked the news online. At SNC, however, I never watch the news. I simply do not have time to sit down and watch what is going on in the world.
I try to check the news online as often as I can, but I find myself checking Facebook or my email instead. When I do get past these distractions, I usually only read the headlines, as a busy schedule prevents me from reading the full news stories.
Even though I know it does, I sometimes feel like what is going on in the outside world doesn't affect me here in the SNC bubble. Whether it is the economy, national security or anything really, the bubble seems impervious to outside influence.
There are exceptions, of course. Those students enrolled in political science classes or any class that deals with current events usually have a better idea of what is going on, simply because it's part of the criteria to pass the course.
Often times I will be sitting in class when a professor starts talking about something that happened recently. "Did you hear about…" is how it starts.
I sit there and listen, because most of the time I had not heard about what the professor is telling the class. Sometimes it is a bit frustrating, because I like to know what's going on in the world.
How can one "pop" the college bubble? There are many ways-such as reading a daily newspaper, checking the full news articles online and watching the news on television-but they can and probably will take up a significant amount of time.
The most important thing for one to remember is that there is a real world outside of college, and that what happens in it affects everyone no matter where they may be.
But when interaction with the outside world doesn't occur, one can become disillusioned about what is really going on. One can become so caught up with school and other things that they sometimes forget that there are other things going on in the world outside of the college bubble.
Before coming to school, I often watched the news every day and checked the news online. At SNC, however, I never watch the news. I simply do not have time to sit down and watch what is going on in the world.
I try to check the news online as often as I can, but I find myself checking Facebook or my email instead. When I do get past these distractions, I usually only read the headlines, as a busy schedule prevents me from reading the full news stories.
Even though I know it does, I sometimes feel like what is going on in the outside world doesn't affect me here in the SNC bubble. Whether it is the economy, national security or anything really, the bubble seems impervious to outside influence.
There are exceptions, of course. Those students enrolled in political science classes or any class that deals with current events usually have a better idea of what is going on, simply because it's part of the criteria to pass the course.
Often times I will be sitting in class when a professor starts talking about something that happened recently. "Did you hear about…" is how it starts.
I sit there and listen, because most of the time I had not heard about what the professor is telling the class. Sometimes it is a bit frustrating, because I like to know what's going on in the world.
How can one "pop" the college bubble? There are many ways-such as reading a daily newspaper, checking the full news articles online and watching the news on television-but they can and probably will take up a significant amount of time.
The most important thing for one to remember is that there is a real world outside of college, and that what happens in it affects everyone no matter where they may be.
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