Pitfalls of Living in the Information Age

“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” T. S. Eliot

“We aren’t in an information age, we are in an entertainment age.” Anthony Robbins

The ease at which we are able to access the world’s information has had some drawbacks. People go on accumulating knowledge, but if it does not come from your own experience it may only become a burden. This is where we are at, people go on accumulating information and begin to believe they know something, yet their being remains the same. No real growth happens to them. Since they feel they already know, they don’t go into it deeply in their lives, it never becomes their own understanding. It remains just as theory, philosophy, and logic of the mind.

A consequence of life in the information age is that people are just becoming more clever, but being clever is just on the surface, this is not real intelligence. Also, the more information they gain the more uncertain everything becomes to them. You accumulate so much information that it now contradicts itself, and since it did not come from your own experience you can never be sure about anything. You can’t really trust what you think you know.

“Information is not knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

You see it everywhere on the net, people digesting immense amounts of information to then only use it to exploit others. Yet they feel they have learned something of real value and convince themselves and others that they need what they know. What I see is that you only end up getting a bunch of imitators. Being an imitator you will never find deep fulfillment. You can only be authentic if you grow through your own understanding, knowledge that is not borrowed. You can recite the holy texts, but what good does it do if it only remains information and not your own deep understanding?

So I caution people to be aware of what information they take in if they are not going to create the experience for it to become an actuality because it will only serve to create barriers and confusion.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

A mind that constantly compares lives in confusion, lives in the future, and you become divided within yourself. When you quit watching others and only watch yourself, you will be growing in the present. Ambition can only exist in the future. But to grow in the now is to be non-ambitious, a different dimension of growth, one that makes you more sensitive to life.

Please don’t accept or deny anything I have said, this is your life so go find out for yourself. We are all different so each journey is bound to be different, we may all find the same truths but express them differently because if you find your individuality the expression has to be different. We are all unique, someone may find their inner divinity through dance, another through poetry, another through meditation, and another through compassion, but one is not better than the other.