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According to a new study, “The Age of Indifference,” released two weeks ago by the Times-Mirror Center, the under 30 generation knows less, cares less, and reads the newspapers less than any other generation in the past five decades. The survey also states that persons between the ages of 18 and 29 are 20 percent less likely to follow important news stories. The surveys most dramatic revelation is the decline in newspaper readership. Only 30 percent of Americans under the age of 35 said they had read a newspaper the previous day. This contrasts with figures in 1965 when 67 percent under 35 said they had read the previous day’s newspaper. What is surprising is that TV has not filled the gap. The percentage of people viewing television news programs is down as well. The Times-Mirror Survey shows the percentage of all of those reading newspapers and watching TV news programs has declined in general. In other words, Americans don’t have the information they need to be good consumers, make good business decisions, vote, or understand the current issues of today.

We don’t have to stay this way, however; there are options.

For example, we can listen to radio news. Most radio stations have a news program every hour and some have them as often as every half an hour. You can also watch TV news. This is possibly one of the easiest and most accessible options for everyone. On the average weekday, there are 56 news programs on television, and this does not include cable channels, business programs, talk shows, or interview programs which do stories about current events.

But just in case television isn’t possible, there is a third option. For 25 cents, which is less than the price of a candy bar, you can buy the weekday edition of The Baltimore Sun or even The Washington Post. Many people shy away from newspapers because they feel they’re too time-consuming or boring. Well, the secret to reading a news article is understanding how it is written. Most news reporters use what is called inverted pyramid style. That is, they place the most important details or facts at the beginning of the article and work their way down to the least important. So in order to understand an article, you only need to read a short way to get the main idea. Sometimes this means you only have to read the headline. Other times you must read the entire article. As you can see, reading the newspaper does not have to be a chore: None of these options are. They are as easy as well as important.

You may wonder why this is so important. What does it matter if you choose not to be informed?

Well, according to the Times-Mirror Survey, the fact that the under 35 generation is so uninformed makes them an easy target of manipulation. We know of powerful speakers such as Martin Luther King, who used his influence for the common good to get people involved in the civil rights movement. And we also know of Adolf Hitler, one of the history’s worst manipulators, who was also a powerful speaker. Do we want to get caught in that trap of blind following? Ignorance is bliss; but then again, ignorance is still ignorance.

We can avoid being uninformed and ignorant by following one of the three options. For example, let’s look at reading the newspaper. By reading the paper you can learn much about world events. You can learn about national events, happenings within the state and county. You can read the sports, the weather, stock figures, the foreign reports, and the classified. You can read stories about real people like you in the features section. Newspapers are truly a fun and enjoyable way to learn what is going on in the world.

Since it’s so important for us to learn about the world, I’m going to ask you to follow through with that last option and to read the paper this week. I’m going to give you all a quarter so you don’t even have to go the library and borrow a copy. Buy a newspaper. Read it, learn, and enjoy. We don’t want to be a nation in trouble because of our lack of knowledge.