I think knowledge refers to a person’s intellectual capacity. You
can gain knowledge from experience, your peers, the internet, books, etc. You
can memorize or retain all the information your brain can handle and you're considered knowledgeable. A person can know everything about cars, for
instance, and that makes him or her knowledgeable about that, but not necessarily wise. I
think wisdom is when a person has the ability to use that knowledge and
effectively apply it to everyday life. When I think of clever people, I imagine them being rational and fair, considering every aspect of a
situation before making decisions and acting upon them. I think I’m only acquiring
knowledge at college and not wisdom. There are roughly four months to a semester
and in that period of time, we’re bombarded with information we have to know. We’re
given exams that basically test our knowledge or how much information we’ve
retained, but we don’t necessarily have to put that knowledge to practice
elsewhere. We acquire wisdom in college in terms of how we deal with things like communication, managing time, studying efficiently, etc. Also, I think the information age has just made us more
knowledgeable. When we look at health
issues, for instance, people are definitely more informed about how to live
healthy lifestyles by eating the right foods, exercising, not smoking, etc. Information
is accessible everywhere, on Yahoo,
Dr. Oz, Reader’s Digest, etc. But we still continue to make some wrong choices, therefore,
only making us more knowledgeable, but not necessarily wise.
I think you have grasped the concept of wisdom vs. knowledge. But, I think in college we are acquiring knowledge and wisdom due to the fact that everything you gain in college, you take into the “real-world” with you. People that don’t go to college, do have a lot of wisdom, however, they don’t have the experience of being in college. During college, you are supposed to be gaining life lessons and skills to help you figure out what you want to do with your life. You also made a good point, that information is everywhere but wisdom is not. You can’t gain wisdom by going to class and taking midterms, but you can gain it through your own personal experience in college.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you - just because someone is knowledgeable does not make him/her wise. In all my classes, I have been lucky enough to learn things that I can apply to my life. I don't really notice it then, but I do eventually realize that some sort of information I learned relates to me. I also agree with you when you say that information is accessible everywhere, but we continue to make bad choices. For example, we all know that smoking is an incredibly big health risk but people still do it anyway. (Well, addiction is also part of that but I'm not gonna get into it, haha.) Anyway - good insight, thank you for sharing!
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