Celebrities beat out natural disaster in top 10 list

Does it concern you at all that the Top 10 Searches of 2011 included 7 celebrities, the iPhone and only two significant world events?

Yahoo! released its annual "Top 10 Searches" as part of its "2011 Year in Review" series, and the list was a little troubling.

It was no real surprise that the new iPhone was on the list, but the fact that it took the number one spot is disconcerting. Do Americans really care about a cell phone more than anything else?

After the iPhone comes Casey Anthony, Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, Jennifer Lopez, Lindsey Lohan, the show "American Idol," Jennifer Aniston, the Japan Earthquake and Osama bin Laden.

Evidently, Americans care more about cell phones and celebrities than a devastating natural disaster or the world's most wanted man.

Have you ever wondered why our nation's in the trouble it's in? Sure, there's corruption, people have been taken advantage of and some people are just victims of bad luck. But if all we're wiling to do is soak up whatever the mainstream media throws our way, then change is going to be pretty tough.

It's no coincidence that serious news stories only made up 30 percent of the list. The Yahoo! article attributed this to the fact that news stories don't need to be searched because all the details are available. This is true to an extent, but it also brings light to a serious issue with Americans' method of gathering information—we're too content.

Many Americans are upset about our economic crisis but are unsure of the cause. A lot of the time, we assume that the media will tell us if there are answers behind real problems. But, as well all know, the mainstream media also has their fair share of hush money.

So much of the news we gain has been chosen and handpicked by people with their own interests. Don't believe me? Look through politico.com to see how many stories are dedicated to rumors and allegations concerning Herman Cain, and how many stories reveal facts about Pelosi's favors and loopholes she provided for her own district.

Instead of using the information superhighway to gather facts about CEOs who exploit their employees and the incredibly corrupt Congress, Americans are using it to see how long Kim Kardashian's wedding lasts and the comebacks of the Jennifers—Aniston and Lopez.

There's nothing wrong with reading about celebrities, and to be fair, a small fraction of the stories, like Katy Perry's breaking of several records, are interesting and culturally relevant. But should 60 percent (70 percent if you count Anthony's legal case) of the top 10 list be celebrities and reality TV?If we're really tired, as a nation, of falling victim to the powers that be with the fat wallets, then we should take it upon ourselves to find out what's really going on.

I'm not saying that we all need to become journalists and documentarians to fix our economic woes, but as long as we keep taking the news at face value and devoting the majority of our resources to reading about the latest celebrity scandal, then real change will always be a rumor, not a fact. At least we'll be up to date on what to look forward to for the next iPhone.