Exhibit 3:
Digitally dumb?

Does digitally wise imply digitally dumb as well? It most certainly does, and we already see a lot of digitally dumb behavior. Although the term is demeaning, it is an apt description of behavior that misuses technology to escape unpleasantness or cause harm rather than using it to enhance wisdom.

Digital dumbness includes acts of digital plagiarism, such as deliberately appropriating online materials without regard for copyright or proper attribution. The new sin here is not the cheating—that’s happened forever—rather, it’s the digital stupidity of not understanding the consequences of one's digital acts and of using technology not to acquire wisdom but to avoid an onerous task.

Being digitally dumb goes even further. It includes having access to digital technologies that are potentially enhancing yet refusing to consider the advantages they may offer. It includes summarily dismissing, based on old thinking, tradition, or unconsidered prejudice, the potential benefits of technology for thinking or wisdom enhancement. And it includes using technology in a thoughtless rather than a wisdom-enhancing way.

Just as digital wisdom may transcend age or other categories, people of any age or profession can be digitally dumb. People of all ages leave sensitive data on accessible computers, misuse e-mail in incriminating ways, or forget to back up critical files. But as a description, "digitally dumb" applies to behavior, not people; even the most unaware can certainly move toward digital wisdom by becoming aware of the repercussions of their behavior and of the potential of behaving in a way that is digitally wise.