Much of the legal profession is technophobic. Many attorneys discuss “e” anything with wide-eyed, meaningful looks and slightly hushed tones. They also refer to things as “e” this and that, which is often an indication of possible technophobia. Such fear is rampant among older generations, very reasonably, because they did not come of age in a technological age. They remember work before e-mail. They remember life before mobile phones. They have excuses that hold water.

But many law students mistakenly see themselves as being above the hoi pilloi by being “too serious” to learn much about either emerging software or hardware. To their future detriment, perhaps, and with ridiculous arrogance, to be sure.

We are tree killers. We need not wield the ax to be beyond culpable. Whether it be wexis prints or discovery requests, law is far from the environmentalist’s­—or the OCD sufferer’s—paperless dream. This is a little odd as so many lawyers are both environmentalists and have at least low-level, undiagnosed OCD-like tendencies. Firms have myriad security concerns, founded or perhaps not, about providing discovery electronically. Let’s just say such concerns are driven by odd and sometimes perverse incentives. But law students have little reason, other than base preference, to choose to print endless reams for research instead of simply downloading a PDF. Almost everyone prints, but does that really make it okay?

Why are some of the most intelligent people in the country so very behind the times? Sure, as many professors will assume, many law students have smart phones. We utilize some forms of social media perhaps too much and as though it were no big deal. Or, well, at least Facebook because even our Moms are on Facebook. Wikipedia is our secret friend to whom we direct the dumb questions we don’t want to admit we need to ask. A few of us even tweet. But many of us do not. Many of us barely tap the internet, own few programs or applications except a word processor, and are slow to respond to e-mail.

Some of this is a function of funding. Student loans do not necessarily sustain budgets for gadgetry or nonessential software. Less exposure means less understanding of how various technology works or simply less access outside of a few wifi-enabled oasis. Some of this is a function of real, if overblown, fear. If a less than complimentary photo or a stray comment is released into the internet’s ether our legal careers and purpose for living may be doomed forever, or so we earnestly believe.

Yet, I think much of law students’ so-called technophobia is simply a function of misplaced disdain.

Law school will drill into us the idea that the legal profession is, by its nature, conservative in its actions if not necessarily its politics. Self-fulfilling prophecies are insidious, and this one is bog standard. But this is at direct odds with the growing need for attorneys to keep up with the world at large.

Consider this. You may be brilliant by virtue of your beautiful mind. And you can live your life mostly offline. You could also live most of your life without electricity. You would still be brilliant (by virtue of your beautiful mind). But the choice would be bizarre, and your full brilliance might be diminished in the dimness of candlelight. And you might struggle to understand your clients and peers who must sit, day in and day out, in the harsh florescent lights of their offices. They might think you musty, arrogant, and ultimately out of touch.

If in minor fits of arrogance we forget there is a world out there moving full steam ahead, and if we let that world get too far a head of us, how can we properly advise and support the people who will (hopefully) pay us to manage their problems? The world is moving at a faster pace, and so must we. Being too arrogant to engage the world is just as bad and perhaps worse than being too afraid to engage it.

Beware the luddites generally, but beware the luddite in yourself most of all. Instead, think of it this way. The future is a beautiful place full of opportunities. Let’s go there.