Since the decade of the fifties the speed of technological advancements in the arena of communication is mind boggling. None would have thought then that handwritten communication will almost cease to exist.
Concurrently, therefore, the need to have good handwriting skills has more or less become obsolete; it’s now a thing of the past. People then would rely upon books, print media, Radio and then inadequately from Television all the information they needed.
The emergence of teleprinter in the early part of the twentieth-century replaced the need for highly trained operators who used to have specialised skills in using Morse code. Teleprinters revolutionised the speed of communications. Earlier, for long distance messages the need was to have in place two professional Morse code operators—one to send and the other to receive. Teleprinters eliminated human intervention in communication. Business and other needs for
Communication allowed for typing messages directly on teleprinters (with a type-writer kind of key board), thereby increasing the speed of transmission.
The life of teleprinters terminated with the development of ‘Telex’—this emerged in Germany in the 1930s and fast became the most used medium globally for communication. The advent of Facsimile machines (Fax, for short) led to the demise of telex and by the middle/ late 1980s Fax had become the most popular mode of instantaneous communications. Fax allowed for immediate sharing of physical document images; the speed of communications had moved from plain text to visual images. As against pure text based on characters/numbers, Fax allowed for instant replication of information far and wide. Fax machines were like remote photocopiers.
The traditional vehicles of communication were literally uprooted with the development of email, which essentially is an exchange between two computers. The first email was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson. Since the decade of the eighties and the nineties, email became the choice medium for exchange of information and continues to do so; it is now a necessity. Emails are the major sources of information. The coinage of the word ‘email’ is attributed to a then 14-year-old lad, ‘Shiva Ayyadurai’, a medical student in New Jersey.
The email revolution was supplemented by the developments of social media platforms, which, over a period of time, have become major sources of information. The launch of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg (2004) led to the deluge of information. Attending to this was the availability of ‘Search Engine’, what had begun as a research project at Stanford University by two PhD students titled “BackRub” turned into a storehouse of information and was rechristened as “Google”. This was followed up by Instagram, Snapchat, etc. The access to information unlimited in nature and content through a keyboard is astonishingly frightful. Today, Gen Z in particular relies heavily on social media platforms for newsfeed and general information.
It is important to note and possess this clarity that information is not knowledge. Those who possess information are not necessarily knowledgeable. Information relates to structural collection of raw data like facts, figures or printed matter; while knowledge is the meaningful understanding of the information. Knowledge demands critical ability to sift through data and by virtue of the human mind to examine and analyse facts in order to seek validation of the thought/ material. The best distinction I have come across between knowledge and wisdom is: knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not to put it in a fruit salad.
Regrettably, due to easy access to the mines of information, the concepts of knowledge and information have come to be seen as synonymous, which they are not. Processed data is information. The use and experience of information lead to knowledge; and it is the sensible use of knowledge that prompts and leads to wisdom.
Humanity is at a turning point. How does it handle the avalanche of information will determine its future. While the information age is a boon, the need to monitor for its ramifications upon the social structure, political thought, philosophy and economic implications is a crucial imperative. The mass of information is also accompanied by a lot of “Noise”. How this will impact relationships domestically and internationally in its broader application has to be looked at with focus. The availability of information is not the issue today or of tomorrow; it is the ability or the lack of it, to analyse, that is the challenge.
The capacities to “analyse” are at bare minimum. This leads to overload of information over knowledge and, in turn, the low levels of knowledge base create the “wisdom gap” in society/countries.
Values that are universal and cut across all types of divide in all their format and manifestations, particularly the “moral”, are under threat; the fear is of modification to ultimate rejection. The dichotomy between “interest” and ‘morals’ makes the issue more diabolical in terms of the resultant impact upon thinking and behaviour. The hitherto guiding light of ‘moral power’ in societies is today at great stake of being annihilated by the demands and quest of overnight fame and fortune. Moral integrity is now on the negotiating table.
Information deluge for the children and adults of Gen-Z is humongous. Are the children ready to process this overload of information to seek out the positive and jettison the impurities present in raw information? There is a great debate raging in the West, whether access to social media should be banned for children under the age of sixteen. Australia has already done it.
With an artificial self-belief and concocted literacy rate of almost sixty percent, our society in comparison is seriously unprepared by the challenge of the availability and access to information - both good and bad, positive and negative. Our monitors to control misuse/abuse of information are extremely weak.
The distinctive lines between information and disinformation today as a consequence of misuse of AI and other technological tools is so badly smudged that it is impossible to sift between truth and falsehood. The disinformation that besets humanity at large is so compelling that we tend to become willing victims by not only accepting, but, also by propagating it, driven by the urge to ‘share’. Even the good old Bard, Shakespeare had centuries ago invited attention to the perils of disinformation, its harmful effect upon people and society. In Henry IV, he cites and defines rumour as a ‘pipe blown by surmise, jealousies, conjectures’. (Readers shouldn’t blame themselves if they get reminded of the numerous and torturous political talk shows that blare on the idiot box, around the clock).
Firstly, parents, and then teachers, will have to work harder to build in the minds of youngsters an impregnable wall of China that will imbibe the ability to not seek information that is likely to impact negatively upon character or the well-grounded inbuilt Values of our culture and traditions.
Knowledge in isolation is not power. Knowledge comes from outside. Wisdom grows within in an attentive mind. Knowledge is the Hare. Wisdom is the Tortoise.
Knowledge gathered and stored is like a loaded gun that is never fired—the trigger of knowledge must be touched only after it has been used and experienced; thence only will knowledge/information be power to the possessor.
Tail piece: “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” (T.S. Elliott).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is Senior Banker & Freelance Contributor