Knowledge is Power

If you can Google something—presumably you can Google everything—do you actually need to know anything anymore?

 

Yes, you do. Here’s a short list:

 

Gibberish won’t get you very far in your Google search for information. If you hope to produce a successful search for information that you could then write about, you need to know how to write. If you want to write effectively, do you need knowledge of things like English grammar, sentence structure, syntax, and word meanings if you could always look these up? Maybe. But not for a Google search. For most general or formal pieces of writing, the answer again is yes.

 

Before, during, and after your Google search…

 

Note, however, that you don’t need to know how to spell because you can still hit your Google search target with ‘Francis Beacon’ and see “Showing Results for Francis Bacon”— purported author of the phrase “Scientia potentia est”or “Knowledge is power.” Of course, you could have the results of a Google search read to you by a robotic voice with an Aussie accent, so I guess you wouldn’t even have to read. But what if you are a visual learner?

 

You can talk to your computer to get it to find information for you.

 

If you don’t have the knowledge of how to write and read effectively, you will find yourself in a tortuous search for the further knowledge you are seeking online, so you better know how to tell time.

 

What is notable is that most of these represent skills or literacies and not necessarily a body of knowledge. Would any of these fill a Jeopardy category column? Probably not. However, you can still consider these “know-hows” a genus of “real knowledge,” just like the times tables, the 50 U.S. state capitals, the Krebs Cycle, the color wheel, or the impact of compound interest. 

 

Having knowledge of traffic rules, Burkina Faso’s location, the shortcut for a search on an Excel spreadsheet, or the colors that are mixed to make magenta can all make your specific work, engagement in an avocation or any type of pursuit that much more efficient, effective, and enjoyable. It also can help lead you to solutions to problems (think engineering designs that work from biomimicry, for example) and to connect with other people who share your interests, or to develop connections with new people from other parts of the state, country, or world. Having knowledge, then, would appear to add significant value to your life.

 

So back to the original question: if you can Google something, do you actually need to know anything anymore? Yup, and the more the better! Knowledge is power.