Almost every day, I am reminded of a question: where has the passion gone in our generation?

From my perspective, no one seems to care about the world around them.

Students have become so wrapped up in their daily routine that they have lost sight of what it means to be passionate about anything.

Just a few decades age people our age would take to the streets and march for the things that they believed in.

Social change was a cause that everyone seemed to think was worthwhile, even if the pursuit of it meant the normal routines was briefly interrupted.

But these days we’re lucky if we can get people to agree on anything.

In part, the media and the government are to blame for making our generation so numb to the good around us. If we look past the horizon of our comfortable bubble, we are surrounded by police shootings, war, political corruption and desensitizing videos on the internet.

Even the so-called “top hits” on the radio, songs like “Anaconda” by Nicki Manaj, or anything by Iggy Azalea is terrible pop music that I can’t imagine anyone actually enjoying.

It’s as if this country promotes complacency through fear and brain-washing.

The media bombards the public with news of disease spreading and good-hearted people dying, which eliminates people’s ambitions to do anything beyond their daily occupations.

The world is changing and needs help; my life is boring and needs a purpose. Somehow, I’m still not inspired to make a difference.

This needs to change.

Break the mold this capitalist society has trapped us in and start educating ourselves about world events that affect us as human beings.

American media distracts us with irrelevant celebrity news and divides us with the arbitrary color of a dress; meanwhile, police are killing young black men all over the country at an alarming rate, American bipartisan politics are slowly falling apart and the middle east and Western Europe are in turmoil.

Not only this, but radioactive waste from the Fukushima disaster is still spreading through our oceans, destroying our ecosystem and marinating the fish we will soon eat.

All of these events across the world affect us on a large scale, and it will be too late by the time we realize what is actually important.

The reason many of us aren’t interested in social change is because we haven’t been personally affected by the terrible things that are taking place. Most of us have read the stories online and seen the videos, but are still stuck inside our bubble, which makes us feel as if our voices are irrelevant.

Go out into the world and see the devastation firsthand. See the world from a perspective beyond our privileged neighborhoods.

Chances are it won’t be an easy transition, but for better or worse, it will push us to forge a new standard of living, and maybe, just maybe, we will be able to inspire passion again.