I can't believe how insecure wireless is

I can never decide if I should shut the network and remain safe or share and be a good person. It makes me insane to think about what information flies around this laptop. How about when you check your email. Check out what gets sent clear text

+OK Hello there.
USER paul
+OK Password required.
PASS xxxzzzxxx
-ERR Login failed.

I used the wrong password so the login failed but if I had the right pasword typed in, not only would it log me in, it would display the password across the network.