Ignorance is Ignorant.

This is all fine by me; in fact, I find it frightening, yet informative. Sometimes college students start living in their own little campus bubble and forget that there are actually other people — real people that live, breathe, eat, and invest in the stock market — that exist outside the 4 square blocks of campus. I won’t deny that I was one of these people when I had my homepage set to MySpace. After feeling that my intelligence was on the decline, I swiftly set it to nytimes.com and decided it was time I learned about what’s going on outside of my air pocket — getting informed, yo!

Yesterday a student roamed into class 10 minutes late, and missed the whole “the stock market’s going to hell” spiel at the beginning of class. After we were dismissed, I observed the tardy student meander up to the professor and ask what went on in class during the 10 minutes she missed.

“Nothing,” my professor replied, then caught herself. “Oh yes! We talked about what’s going on in the stock market…”

She trailed off into some details, namely describing it as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Hearing these things makes me want to move to some remote forest on another continent, where I don’t have to buy gas, groceries, or shave my legs. I could live off the land and not have to make a monthly investment in hair products.

This student — we’ll call her Dawn — thinks otherwise. As the professor continued to reiterate the horrors of the economy, Dawn simply shook her head.

“I’m…not affected by any of it, so it doesn’t really matter to me.”

Freeze. Wait…what? You’re not affected by it?!

Have you bought anything lately? 

Do you have parents that buy things? Stock, perhaps?

Maybe looked at the front of the NY Times, USA Today, Star Tribune, or the FORUM for that matter?

Do you live in the United States?

ARE YOU LIVING under a ROCK in YOUR DORM ROOM?! 

Argh.

I know I can be ignorant at times, but Geez Louise! Let’s get with the program.

That is all.