What Does the Term Expert Mean?
Someone used the term “expert” in regards to a person and social media recently. It sounded good at first, but then I started thinking. Is anyone really an “expert” in a field that is barely five years old and changes literally every day?
One definition of the term expert reads: a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area. I guess someone could qualify under that definition, but it also seems to me that as soon as one gains authoritative knowledge about the field of social media that everything changes. Everyone involved with social media must be in a constant learning mode.
It does seem, however, that we are living in a day where the term expert is coined much faster than in days past. I know people in ministry who have been serving less than five years who, mostly because of their online experience or because they wrote a book, are considered “experts” in ministry. I’m not saying this is right or wrong, I’m just questioning the meaning of the term these days. Has it changed?
What do you think? How do you define an expert? Whom would you call a social media expert?
