The ease of access to knowledge the world is experiencing today is extraordinary, and it is amazing how we can access any information/knowledge from the comfort of our home or anywhere in the world as long as we've got the necessary gadgets to make that happen. This wasn't something many people thought would happen, and we have technology to thank for making this possible.
I can confidently say that the ease has influenced so many things and made life a lot easier for us, even though there is a but we aren't bothered about. I actually don't know what the world used to look like before technology became this advanced, but my little experience over a decade ago gave me an insight.
All through my junior and senior school years, I always had assignments that had to do with research, and visiting the cyber café was the only option students had because we didn't even have access to textbooks with detailed information for the research. Cyber cafes weren't available everywhere, and I had to pay for transportation and browsing time, which doesn't come easy.
There are days when going to the cyber café won't yield results because we can't afford enough time to browse, and it made me feel really bad, but things are different today. With the help of AI on our devices, we can access information easily, and easy is even an understatement because you don't need to dig much before getting the exact knowledge you seek.
We do so many things with ease with the aid of technology, and everyone love it. Nobody wants a tough life, which is very understandable, but I believe our easy access to information/knowledge comes at the detriment of so many things, especially for the younger generation that has become overdependent on ready-to-use information, which affects them in the area of cultivating critical thinking, creativity, and practical knowledge.
Talking about this has gotten me into arguments a few times, and it's sad that we aren't seeing the terrible impacts of this easy access to knowledge. I know the cases are different around the world, but generally, students are gradually losing the ability to think critically, all because they don't face challenges that would put them in situations to think critically, and I don't blame them. It's the same as the lack of creativity we see among students; it's all happening because they have the knowledge they want to acquire available at their disposal.
This reminded me of a time when a neighbor's child asked if I had planted vegetables before. He was given a whole term assignment to grow vegetables and note the growth process. Instead of doing the needful, he collected the information online, and just to be sure, he started asking older people about their experiences.
All of this contradicts what acquiring knowledge was during the time of our ancestors when they had to do experiments, research, and lots of hard work before they could learn anything. Their knowledge and discoveries then were what we are improving on today, so it would be wrong to look down on their intelligence.
Easy access to information comes at a price, and I believe it's not worth it. All of these are why many students fail to meet up with the demand of the labor market, where you have to think critically while being creative. Beyond the classroom walls, they struggle to thrive, and that's definitely not a good thing.
Comparing our ancestors knowledge to what we have today is a complicated and like I said earlier, we can't condemn their intelligence in any way since they paved the way for today's technological advancement. As much as we believe that having easy access to information is a blessing, we mustn't forget the fact that we are trading so many important things for that ease. In today's world, where information and knowledge can be accessed anywhere and at any time, we must endeavor to create a balance where the ease of information meets with critical thinking and creativity.
All Image Are Mine.
The days of Cyber Cafe's were great but I didn't maximize it.