Have we confused being informed with being wise?

Never in human history have we had access to more information. So why does it sometimes feel like we’re understanding less?

There was a time when information was difficult to find. You had to visit a library. Read a book. Find an expert. Ask somebody who actually knew something. Sometimes you have to spend weeks searching for an answer.

Today, you can access more information in ten seconds than your grandparents could gather in ten months. Any fact. Any statistic. Any opinion. Thousands of experts. Millions of videos. Billions of webpages.

And yet people seem more confused than ever.

How is that even possible?

How can we know more but understand less?

Have we actually confused being informed with being wise?

Here’s my suspicion: we have started treating information and wisdom as if they were the same thing.

They are not. Not even close.

Information tells you that a tomato is technically a fruit. Wisdom tells you not to put it in a fruit salad.

Information tells you what happened. Wisdom helps you understand why it happened.

Information gives you answers. Wisdom helps you ask better questions.

Somewhere along the way, we started collecting information the way some people collect stamps. More. More. More.

Another article. Another podcast. Another video. Another expert explaining why everything is terrible all the time.

So, have we confused being informed with being wise? I mean, our brains are full. But are we actually becoming wiser?

I’m not so sure…

Wisdom requires something information does not: time.

Time to reflect. Time to think. Time to change your mind. Time to admit that perhaps the first answer wasn’t the best answer.

And that is becoming increasingly rare.

We scroll. We react. We share. We comment. But then we move on.

The next outrage arrives before we’ve understood the previous one. The next crisis appears before we’ve learned anything at all from the last one.

And so we become informed. Very informed.

But not necessarily wise.

Have we confused being informed with being wise?

I think we have.

And I think we’re paying the price for it.