Privacy is harder than ever when everyone is invited to be linked in, connected and transparent to others (including hackers and the government), but it matters. Reading books is time consuming, but it matters. Reflection is easily drowned out when life is fired at us point-blank, but it matters. Independent thinking is hard when the social media reinforce groupthink, but it matters. Thinking for ourselves is difficult when it is so much easier to download an expert opinion, but it is essential to the freedom of our own agency, so it matters. Conversations with an iron-sharpens-iron quality are rarer when minds seek carbon-copy approval from others in their own bubble, but they matter. History is more crucial than ever when the relentless modern focus is on the present and the future, but it matters. The courage to hold unfashionable convictions is more difficult when social media mobs give their thumbs-up or thumbs-down like a Roman emperor, but it matters.
And so it goes. Having the right information is vital, but achieving genuine knowledge is better, and mastering both and then attaining true wisdom is better still.
Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.201-202
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