By: Katrina Penaflor
managing editor

What even is news anymore? Also, what even is that last sentence I typed? It doesn’t fully sound right, but I feel like it’s the right thing to say—so I’ll say it.

Anyway, what do I mean by my question? Well news, to me, lately is not at all what I would consider to be news.

I was on Facebook (I know, terrible place to start my argument, but this isn’t quite an argument per say, just my “musings”) and the top trending story was about a reality show star wearing rubber sandals.

Rubber sandals are what I would refer to as slides, you know those basic black sandals with a thick strap across the foot.

That was the top trending story?

This is news? If I step outside my house to take out the trash in my Nike slides, is a reporter going to stop me on the street while I’m looking like a hot mess and take my picture?

Well no, that would never happen. And I get this was trending because the woman wearing the shoes is famous, but can people see how ridiculous this is?

Literally almost anything else in the world would have been more of a news story than that.

What about the recent debates? Let’s talk about Oregon job loss. Any cats stuck in a tree—I would even consider this last crazy question as more newsy (I’m making this a word if it isn’t one.)

With the rise of pop culture and the lives of celebrities becoming more important to some than the events of the rest of the world, I feel the term “news” is quickly fading away. Or maybe not quite fading, it’s still fitting its definition of being noteworthy and providing information, but sadly the focus of what people see as important is shifting in a different direction.