Ever since November 11th 2018, the Australian wildfires have killed hundreds of humans and animals. These fires have been a heavily talked about topic all around the world and here at Tosa West.

What we wanted to know was how people found out.

“So I interact with Facebook occasionally. I use Twitter quite a bit as a news source. But Instagram, I do have a snap chat that I don’t use because I don’t know what it does, but I do have a Snapchat,” said West social studies teacher Chris Benes. 

However, many students don’t use as many social media platforms as teachers. 

“Five times a day. Not for very long. Usually just when I don’t have anything else to do,” says Senior Henry Frey after being asked how much he uses social media. 

Still, everyone interviewed that has social media somehow knew about the Australian wildfires. 

“I use Twitter quite a bit and I generally follow people that write about the news and what’s going on around the world. So lots being said on Twitter,” Benes says.    

Other teachers found their news a different way other than social media.

“So I actually daily listen to a podcast in the morning, which I don’t think that counts as social media technically. But, I listened to the NPR podcast, it’s called up first. And they do like a first what is happening that day in politics in the world. It’s worldwide and then like big things that are going on having to do with government as well. So they’ve been mentioning that they haven’t talked about it a whole lot,” said English teacher Amanda Frazier. 

Because social media is such a big part of many lives these days, it’s possible that some people wouldn’t know about the fires if they didn’t use it. 

 “I definitely would know less about it had I not had social media” Frazier says. 

Most students don’t know everything that’s put out on TV or newspapers. 

On social media many celebrities have mentioned donating to the fires. A Go Fund Me page exists that anyone is able to donate to.