Being informed doesn’t make a person knowledgeable
Informed and knowledgeable are terms that are very often mistaken to be synonymous. They are not. They do complement each other but do not mean the same in more than one ways. You can be a person who is well informed and yet lack knowledge of your own conscience. You can know about everything new and stay updated on everything under the sun and yet lack a point of view. That is what makes you an informed person with a lack of understanding.
Information and knowledge differ in vague terms as well in technicality and yet they are assumed to mean the same. Intelligence comes into the scene and makes differentiating easier. Information combined with intelligence makes you knowledgeable and the lack of the latter makes you simply an informed person.
The others will not quite agree to this as they argue on how they are synonymous and are used to express the same thing in different ways.
For:1. Information v/s Processing: One can also assume that a person with a vast memory capacity remembers all the dates in history. They are good with dates and can be called an informed person. They would be called knowledgeable too if they are well aware of the tidings of history from the point of view of different historians and has also formed his own opinion on what could have been during the olden days. Being able to process what you read is what makes you knowledgeable.
2. Man v/s Computer: Knowledge and intelligence is what separates man from computer. You can feed as much data to the computer and make it well informed to be used by you when needed but you cannot ask it to tell you how and when you could use the stored information. Your wealth of knowledge does that. You analyze the information and deduce your own results out of the data provided to you and then you are ready to be called a knowledgeable person.
3. Self diagnostic: You are sick and have symptoms that show signs of a disease. You take help of your good friend Google and get into the belief that you are actually sick with the suggested result. You dig further and start self medicating based on whatever the sites tell you. People end up risking their lives in the process. You cannot expect to become a pro in any field just by following the information on the cover. There is more to medical science than jus theoretical information. Information without proper knowledge can be a dangerous thing and should not be used without precautionary measures.
4. Lack of wisdom: If you are well versed but lack wisdom, you cannot be called knowledgeable. When the test of time comes, your information base would not help alone. Under challenging situations, it is wisdom and knowledge that comes to rescue. That’s when you understand the true meaning of insight. Only a person with a good insight into a matter can stand the test of time with his immense understanding of the situation.
5. Implementing: When you can boast in front of people and show off that you are well aware of the itty bitty details, you are a well informed person. When your information is useful enough to be implemented when needed, you are a knowledgeable person. Being able to put your information to practical use where others too and perceive and benefit from what you know makes you a person of wisdom and knowledge. A knowledgeable person is always more acknowledged and recognized in the corporate world as compared to an informed person.
Against:1. Looking it up: Refer the good old dictionary and you will find that knowledgeable actually means a person who has accomplished great intelligence by being well informed in a subject or more than one. What it takes for a person to be knowledgeable is just data or information. To remember all that information, he definitely has to be intelligent too which deduces that knowledgeable and well informed are absolutely synonymous.
2. Intelligence is an altogether different thing: For those who argue that knowledgeable is when an informed person has intelligence too, they must note that intelligence is altogether different concept. You can lack intelligence and yet be so informed that your information could be used in many ways. It doesn’t require intelligence above excellence to make a person knowledgeable. Ever saw who wins those quiz contests? Not the super smart kids who are innovative but the ones who have a good memory power and remembers too many things at the same time.
3. Mugging up: Simply mugging up the data can make you a knowledgeable person, even though your ideas are simply someone else’s thoughts. The media, for instance, gives you a lot of information. 90% of the people form their opinion based on these data made available to them. You mug up those details and reproduce the same along with statistical facts and you will be called a knowledgeable person, even though they are not your personal opinion or data.
4. No opinion required: If you look at the controversial media reports, there would be at least a couple dozen news every day that are out of context for you. We do not know for sure if there is some world class conspiracy behind the mindless bombing and terrorism. Most of the common people would just give up on forming opinion on these matters. That doesn’t make us less knowledgeable. These are things beyond the perception of common people. You either believe media reports or the self styled experts on social media.
Being informed does make you knowledgeable too for they are synonymous but an added bit of intelligence is what it takes to get yourself recognized for your wealth of knowledge. When we build our own perception and insight from the knowledge and information we have access on, we are regarded with interest – a person with a shrewd understanding of worldly affairs.
