Suddenly, Everyone’s an Expert?

The incredible power of Google (Bing?) has made every second person informed about sports, medicine, health, authors, issues, etc. That, and arrogance.

You have a problem, Google it. Need directions, Google it! Feeling nauseous, Google, Google, Bing! All that is fine but, what really gets my goat is when people say they know a lot on the subject because they’ve read so much about it online. Pardon me, but your ‘Yahoo! Answers‘ inspired cock-and-bull doesn’t really do much because it’s from as unreliable a source as any.

My basic point is that there’s too much emphasis on second-hand information and not too many people actually ‘know’ stuff. At the most, they have read or really researched the bare minimum of things and pass off their internet acquired know-how as intellectual prowess!

If you’re an avid RHCP fan, you’ll know pretty much all the lyrics to their songs and the reasons behind them. You will not be half as concerned about who dated whom and who did which drugs. If you adore Henry James and love a particular book of his, you’ll actually have a copy of the book, one which is well-worn and dog-eared. You won’t be reeling off stupid facts that hold no real significance to his life and work like you knowing a dike which serves an amazing cocktail called ‘Henry James’ or ‘Maisie’s Delite’ which as per you, ‘captures the essence of HJ’. These things don’t make you an expert. They make you come off as an arrogant idiot. Please.

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4 thoughts on “Suddenly, Everyone’s an Expert?

  1. Very true.
    I often stand at stare into a persons soul when they tell me something totally random- and state their source as Wikipedia.

    PS: Wikipedia can be edited by anyone. I, myself, have vandalized innumerable Wiki pages.

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