To Be, or Not To Be, Van Winkled

“To be Van Winkled” may sound like a phrase straight out of a Dr. Seuss book, but that’s not the case. Birdie, an online blogger, “coined” the verb to express his state while he was without any news from the world for one full year. Of course, Birdie was not asleep for the entire 365 days; instead, he blocked out any and all news from social media including natural catastrophes, “man-made” disasters (or as Birdie says, a “tragic happening” (Birdie 1)), and any other news-worthy events, excluding those in his own personal life. His “information black out” (Birdie 1), as he calls it, is a choice not many would make nowadays because of how the entire world is based off of the idea of staying connected. That one year disconnect would be a heavy burden to bear for anyone who loves hearing about current events, cares about what’s going on internationally, or just needs their weekly “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” fix. Birdie’s Van Winkling is obviously not a challenge that’s made for everyone to try, but it’s something that everyone should think about. A year without knowledge of how the world changes might seem simple, but it would be very difficult to accomplish because of how integrated the news is in people’s day-to-day schedule. It appears on the radio, television, magazines, and social media, especially Facebook and Twitter which were both made to share information globally. Avoiding current events for an hour (to get work done, for example) is difficult in itself, which means that Van Winkling must be one of the greatest challenges to try to do in this day and age.