I have about three news apps on my phone: CNN, Huffington Post and Buzzfeed News. They send me various notifications throughout the day about world events that matter.

Today on my catch up section via my Buzzfeed News app, the first thing mentioned was blizzard Jonas and its impact. The second was an update about the Zika virus and how 24 regions are under a travel warning. Lastly, was Rihanna’s new single, but this was quickly replaced with the alert of Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa’s Twitter argument. 

We, as a nation, have an obsession with pop culture. I will shamelessly admit I follow the latest trends and try to keep up with all things going on in the world, especially the entertainment world.

As soon as the alert came through that Yeezus and Wiz were fighting, I went straight to check what was going on, even while my professor was mid lecture. The tweets were deleted, but thank God for the multiple accounts that recycle tweets they find on other accounts in the Twitterverse.

The screengrabs showed me the sexist comments from Kanye and how Wiz didn’t really care what was going on and didn’t give much of a reaction. However, after catching myself up on this, my classmates and I started talking about it with so much excitement. As soon as the conversation was over, I went back and looked at the other top stories.

Why were we not talking about this virus? Why were we not talking about all the regions it is effecting? We were so focused on an argument that is going to cause viral memes and be a hot topic on The View for a week instead of something that was harming lives. Have we let pop culture take over our minds when we think of real news?

This Kanye and Wiz Twitter fight is entertaining, but is it actually newsworthy? No, it isn’t. Yet we are so consumed by pop culture, we have our minds programed to think it is. I decided to challenge myself, not only as a journalist, but also as a genuine human being. I’ve decided to not give so much into the pop culture hysteria and focus more on what affects the world. Step away from E! News and watch more of CNN. Learn more about current events that impact society and not if waist trainers actually work.

Desmond Groves can be contacted at [email protected]