Acquiring Information, Knowledge & Wisdom

In today's well connected world, technology may have increased our level and ease of connectivity with people but has it also increased our depth of interaction and real communication with personal touch? Similarly, we can get information about almost anything, anywhere and anytime by just pressing a few buttons on our smart phones, tablets and/ or computers. Ironically, there are still reports and feedback that our new and young generations are slowly degenerating into a bunch passive individuals or worse still, unthinking passive lot. What has happened? And why has it happened?

With advancing and fast changing technology, new gadgets that kept appearing in the market, as well as easy online search and access, it is inevitable that we may get a sense of “false" good feeling that we can learn new things, check out information or have the power to find out everything under the sun at a simple touch of our fingertips. This perceived power of being able to obtain information has slowed down the need to acquire more and/ or retain information, but created a superficial understanding of a topic and believing of information without verification. 

With almost everyone capable of writing and posting information onto the web or social media for sharing, there is so much information that are “pushed” to us that we are facing a problem of information overload. This makes it difficult for one to sieve out the truths. Given our fast pace society, we get impatient when information is slow. It is also easier for one to accept and choose to believe in information that comes across closer to one’s beliefs as truths, rather than spending the time and effort on more research. Humans tend to have a herd mentality hence, even the untruths, when spread by many, may become the “truths".

To ensure healthy progression and growth of our new and young generations, it is crucial to first understand the difference between Information, Knowledge & Wisdom. 

From there, it is also important that parents and educators pass down the right information, teachings and beliefs. So, what exactly is Information, Knowledge & Wisdom, and what comes first? 

The first level that comes first should be Information - knowledge obtained about someone or something : facts or details about a subject. This is followed by Knowledge - facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. Lastly comes Wisdom - the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.

In conclusion, checking for accuracy and verification of data to acquire the right Information takes time and effort. This, is Knowledge gained by those who go down this path. It is with great knowledge that comes with Wisdom. 

See the World Through the Eyes of Our Children

How often have we heard exclamations that "We never used to behave like that while we were young!" or "The kids these days are just so different from our times!" and so on. The way that the adults see the world today can be very different from the way the children see it, and age or experience are just one of the few factors.

Seeing through the eyes of an adult & a child
In an example of an adult who is is born in the 70s and and currently aged around 30s-40s,  he is likely to see the world as a well connected village and yet where people may feel more distant from one another as communication is more via online than face-to-face interaction. To him, playing with friends means meeting up physically for a game of sports like basketball or football. 

In an example of a child, he may not find spending long hours online as anything unusual and may even prefer electronic face-to-face communication in the comfort of his own home. He will probably consider chatting with his friends via google hangout, messaging them on twitter or whatsapp a means of "hanging out" and "communicating" with them. To him, playing with friends means meeting up electronically for a game of football via mobile or computer games.

Generation Gap
The above phenomenon is also commonly known as the generation gap. For adults who are currently aged around 50s-60s, they would probably felt the same way with those who are now in their 30s-40s. In addition to age and experience, changes in environment, technological advancement as well as education will impact on the degree of differences of how the world is seen through the eyes of the adults and children.

When tuned to think in differently, it is inevitable that the children will also behave differently and sometimes, even far from what the adults may expect. The link below is a video that has gone viral recently. It shows a secondary school boy asking  his teacher to apologise for raising his voice.

While there were some supporters for the boy, there were also net citizens who think that he is too manipulative of the situation, and that his body language displayed strong signs of defiance towards authority.


Bridging the Gap
While the above situation seems worrying, generation gap is nothing but psychological and emotional gap between parents / elder people and the younger ones. It is important for the adults/ parents to try to be current and updated with information and technologies, make friends, listen and make it a point to communicate effectively with an open mindset and heart, be willing to accept new things, as well as to stay close to help mould the good behaviour and attitude in the children.