it is important to know which parts of the world are at war, when earthquakes and floods happen, At least, so that you can be aware if something puts people you know at risk, and so that you don't look too foolish around the water cooler.

I have rarely found any of these things of any great use, apart from flooding around where I live - that covers 50-100,000 people whereas the mainstream news covers flooding everywhere on the globe - much more information than matters to me.

And as for looking foolish ... that's not a great reason for doing something if you consider it a waste of time.

What if something really important happened?

Well? What if it did? Something really important happened and you missed it ... is that so bad?