Positions on key issues, rather than personal characteristics, are beginning to define who we are as people.

Being opinionated is not necessarily a negative thing, but an opinion is only as good as the reasoning that precedes it. And that is where our society is lacking.

Nowadays, people can access top news stories and breaking information with a simple click of a button.

TVs, computers and even cell phones lay out the day’s top stories in a user friendly format. Citizens stay up to date with the most recent headlines and news facts. It all sounds good, right?

But the ease that has delivered us the most breaking information also has corrupted our judgment.

It has turned us into a society of headline readers, those who scan the title and the main points of a story but fail to digest the full meaning. The Web offers so many different informational avenues that it’s difficult to stay focused on one subject and consume all that needs to be consumed. Why read the entire story when the next juicy topic is just a click away?

Reading the headlines and assuming certain stances on key issues might prove an easy way to get by, but when the issues are as complex and mind-boggling as they are today, lacking an educated opinion will prove costly. It’s easy to read an overview about abortion, conflicts in the Middle East or poverty in the United States and take a side.

But these issues contain lots of confusing twists and applied logic that won’t be found in the first two paragraphs.

Anyone who believes he can solve world hunger after watching a five-minute news segment shouldn’t be allowed to vote in the next presidential election.

Reading up on the issues and examining both sides of the story provides the only real method of forming a valid opinion.

Why do we have opinions? They form the basis of who we are. They give us identities and a means for deciding whom we wish to surround ourselves with. They’re found within everyday discourse and enliven a rather clich