Not knowing things in today’s world strikes me often as being completely voluntary.
I was browsing the internets recently like I do quite often, and I came across a discussion thread talking about how far we’ve come technologically as a species. Let’s face it, we’re pretty awesome when it comes to our inventions and what we can do. I mean, I’m in my early twenties and things are so different from when I was first introduced to technology.
One post struck me. It pointed out that we now have small devices that can fit in our pockets, devices that can let us instantly communicate with anyone anywhere on the planet by sending signals into space. These devices also let us access all the accumulated knowledge of our entire species. We have access to every fact known to man with a few simple taps.
For someone who thinks intellectual progress and learning are awesome, this is super, super cool.
But it got me thinking. Information is so easy to get now. You don’t have to trudge to a library anymore, you can just type on your keyboard for a few seconds and you have it. Hell, with some smartphones and tablets, you can ask them questions with your voice and they will talk right back to you. The only way it could be any easier is if the knowledge were downloaded directly into your brain so that you didn’t even have to read. (Never fear, lazy people, that day is coming soon.)
So here’s my question. Is there really an excuse for not knowing things anymore? Let’s say for simplicity’s sake I’m talking about things just about anyone could figure out. Let’s also posit that this is knowledge that you are interested in knowing in the first place. Obviously some knowledge is beyond the bounds of simple research, and sometimes you just couldn’t care less about certain facts. But so often I see people that don’t know very basic things. And they know they don’t know it, but don’t do anything about it. Does that seem weird to you?
I’m fully aware that being able to learn things means that you have to know what you don’t know. You have to have the right questions to be able to get the right answers. But let’s face it. Knowledge is available to us like never before. You can learn new things and read up on detailed subjects incredibly easily. You can even get your computers to read the answers to you if you so desire.
What do you think? Do you think there are still reasonable excuses to not know things despite how readily available information is today? (Again, consider that the information in question is both teachable to most people and relevant to their interests.)
It’s one of those topics that can have a lot of different approaches to it. I for one, absolutely adore the internet and the ability to have an answer to a question in just a few seconds by typing into my computer. I have learned so much from how to better my writing, find out definitions of words without having to sift through a dictionary, how to make a full suit of armor (yes, it’s a video series on Youtube), and the list goes on and on. However, it also encourages laziness if you don’t have that drive for learning. As there is, there is a lot of entertainment on the internet now, from blogs to movies to books and so there is also a lot of room for distraction. One of the things that I struggle with.
But to answer your question, no, I don’t think we should go without knowing things. We have to be careful that the information we are absorbing is accurate, but with all this knowledge available to us, I think that everyone should take advantage of that. Maybe this is another way that schools can teach differently. I know that we already have online classes, but I think that they need to start recognizing that kids no longer have to go to a library and spend hours at a time to find enough information on a subject.
Oh yeah, the internet is definitely full of distractions. And the part about making sure the information is accurate is especially important. But I remember in high school we started being taught how to use online databases and find good sources, different from elementary school when I was being taught how to use a physical card catalog. Oh how times change, but I’m glad people are embracing it.
I read an article not too long ago that suggests this constant ability to have information at our fingertips is actually the REASON we seem to have become more ignorant of the world around us. Basically the idea was that just KNOWING how easy it is to get information convinces our brains not to bother retaining. From our brains’ standpoint it’s like saying, “Remeber all the elements on the periodic table? Psssshhh…why bother when I can Google that nonsense in about twelve seconds?”
It’s unfortunate, but evidently it’s subconscious brain chemistry that effects pretty much everyone this day and age.
Not that that’s an excuse not to learn, but it must certainly make things a little more difficult if even your own brain is fighting you.
That’s pretty fascinating, and I can definitely see how that would be true. We’ve learned things the same way for so long, and now everything is changing drastically. I don’t think people are ready for it. Hopefully we can find a way to sort of keep it in moderation so we still remember how to retain that information.
I’ve been trying to keep it in mind, myself, because I’ve noticed that over the past 8 years or so my memory has just gone to bed on me, and I wonder if this isn’t half of the reason. My chocolate chip cookie recipe, for instance, refuses to stay in my brain. I’ve made the recipe at least two dozen times, but I still can’t remember the amounts of the ingredients, and I wonder if that’s not at least in part because subconsciously I know how easy it is to just go bring it up on the computer. Dependance…scary. o.o
I can’t know everything and I’m certainly not interested in everything.
It’s okay to not know everything as long as you’re willing to admit when you don’t know something.
I was having problems with my asthma. I couldn’t even walk across the room without having to stop to catch my breath. I went to my doctor and found that he was out of town so they scheduled me with a different doctor. They gave me a neb treatment and sent me on my way, but I was still having issues. Same on day two. On day three they refused to give me another neb because my pulse ox was fine and the nebs weren’t helping. Now, instead of saying that she just didn’t know what was wrong with me, this doctor proceeded to tell me that maybe the problem was in head and I was stressed from school. *Klaxons blaring* Not the first doctor to tell me something was in my head and not the first I refused to ever see again. School never stressed me. I don’t let much stress me and when I do it doesn’t present as asthma issues. Fast forward to one week later, my doc is back, takes one look at me and tells me I have bronchitis. I ended up having to take antibiotics for two weeks and a steroid for a month (I was a HUGE B*TCH for an entire month) all because she couldn’t admit that she didn’t know what was going on and consult with another doctor or (hell) my charts which showed a history of bronchitis. *I* could have told her it was bronchitis.
TL;DR: It’s okay to not know everything as long as you’re willing to admit when you don’t know something.
Oh yeah. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect anyone to know everything. Even if we had the capacity to know everything, there’s so much out there that’s just so BORING. Mostly I was talking about how easy it is to figure out things we want to know, that we don’t really have any excuse to say, well, I just don’t know the answer to [some simple thing]. The days are gone when finding out an answer would be a hassle.
That said… it drives me nuts when I hear stories about issues like that in the medical field. It’s not a great feeling when you don’t know something, but when you do it wrong you can cost someone their health, so definitely admit it right away and send them to someone who knows their stuff. >_>
This is very interesting. I suppose it’s okay to not know some things nowadays, simply because there is SO MUCH information to grasp and one cannot possibly know everything. So yeah, some people do lack in knowledge, perhaps because they were too busy acquiring other knowledge, or because they’re not interested in learning… or cause they’re lazy and a little slow.
Just my two cents!
I think the laziness is what I’m talking about the most. I don’t want to imply that because knowledge is so easy to get that it’s mandatory that we go learn all the things, even stuff that we don’t care about; but like I said in another comment, it’s mostly about how there are fewer and fewer excuses about not knowing certain things when it’s so easy to find an answer. I think what you said about not being interested in learning is true, but it kind of makes me sad. Learning is so cool.
There are some things not worth knowing and most of the stuff which is ‘beamed’ to me, I am just not interested in.
I don’t care who has married whom this week, who has bonked whose wife, which footballer cannot keep it in his trousers for two and a half minutes, etc, etc.
Of course it is OK not to know stuff, and to admit it, to delight in looking it up, to take pleasure in not being able to stop there, but to go on and find out more.
The ‘beamed stuff’ – nah….. we are fed the lowest common denominator of ‘stuff’.
Not for me. I love the internet, I love my phone, but I don’t necessarily want to be bombarded with the same kind of rubbish that comes through my door and goes straight into the bin. I choose how much I want to be informed and from where I want to learn it.
Yeah, definitely choose what you want to learn (within reason, I think there are certain things that everyone should know). But I’m with you, I completely ignore most of the tabloid-y stuff.
I suppose we all learn or find out the things we want to. My husband and I are always googling bits of information or ways to do things. As a writer, I am so in awe of those who wrote before the internet. If I had to leave my home to do all of the research I’ve done, I would have never written a book.
Yeah, it’s pretty remarkable. I suppose that’s where a lot of fiction/fantasy writers have it easy. Don’t know how something works? Just make it up!
I think it’s not only okay, but inevitable. Information may be available, but there’s only so much we can read. I’ve got literally hundreds of wikipedia pages bookmarked, probably millions of words. Subjects or people that looked interesting, but I’ve not had the time to go back and read.
There’s a few annoying excuses for ignorance (“That’s before my time”) but we’re all going to be ignorant about a few things.