What I tend to associate knowledge with is learning. Knowledge is the information that you retain and carry with you through life. Knowledge can be anything from information from the classroom, a test, studying, or even street smarts. It is what you KNOW, and not always considered the "information" we read in texts.
Information tends to be solid and grounded. It is what you might find in a text book or online is written form. In an electronic age, it is much easier for us to receive information versus knowledge. Though we may need knowledge to get us through a test or experience, information is constantly accessible for us through the internet, and even any form of text. While many of us have the internet on our phones, it is constantly easy to access any form of information we may need.
Human nature has almost turned away from the emphasis on knowledge, and more toward information. Professors, teachers, and school officials have begun to emphasize the need for academic integrity, with no plagiarism, and cheating on tests.
It would be interesting to go so far as saying that because we live in a digital age, is there such a thing as knowledge? Obviously the answer is yes, but if someone truly wanted information, attaining it wouldn't be any farther away than the nearest internet device, which in most cases is in their pocket.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to knowlege, I wonder how much, as humans, we've digressed. We are so dependent and trusting on technologies to provide us with information (that we usually assume is accurate) that we no longer take the time or effort to memorize and take it what we're actually looking up. For example, if one is taking a train, one might look up the train times on one's phone, computer, or even look up the times on a train schedule pamphlet. But what if we didn't have access to this information? The obvious choice might be to just "show up" at the train station, hoping that a train will come shortly. But what if this particular train is one that you've taken before? Or numerous times before? Instead of actually learning and processing the time that the train actually leaves, it is usually just dismissed and not stored in our long term memory. I am aware that after numerous times of taking a train, one might begin to memorize the times, but it is just interesting to me that we are so dependent on these technologies to provide us with our knowledge that we never actually learning the knowledge for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteGreat comments here, on a thought-provoking post. I do think there are very important distinctions to be made between knowledge, which is very much a human phenomenon, and information which is both more superficial than knowledge but also extends well beyond our species.
ReplyDeleteWhen associating knowledge with learning, your post makes a proper distinction from information. With information, it can be merely obtained, but doesn't necessarily have to be used, let alone interpreted. Knowledge, as I take it seems to bring it a step further and put action upon the experiences set in front of us.
ReplyDeleteI think knowledge is something that we know without a doubt. Information is something that we are uncertain about, therefore we learn it. Once we learn, comprehend and store that information, the information then becomes knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Isiejah in that once we comprehend and store the information, it turns into knowledge. And I also feel that it is only really knowledge if we can remember it. If we never retained the information it remains as information. I believe it is also possible to once have had knowledge about something, but to have forgotten what you knew, therefore that "knowledge" regresses back to being information.
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