The Death of Expertise - Tom Nichols

11 months ago
17

Since the beginning of time, access to information and news has been one of the things that disturbed people on a daily basis. As Man, regardless of his culture and the time in which he lives, remains in an urgent need of knowledge and awareness of everything that happens around him, whether in his society or in the world as a whole. In the past, access to information and news was very difficult, due to the scarcity of news sources and the fact that they were under the control of certain institutions or persons. At that time, checking and verifying the truth was impossible, especially for the normal person.
The ongoing debate is still raging between experts and ordinary people. When any topic is discussed, we find two contradictory parties. The first is the intellectuals who believe that the common people do not understand anything, and the other is the ordinary people who do not trust anyone who claims to be an expert.
With the advent of the Internet in the twentieth century, a quantum leap occurred in the field of spreading and discussing news, science, and facts, therefore this raised the heightened conflict between the opinions of experts and the opinions of ordinary people.
With the dawn of search engines such as Google and social media such as Twitter and Facebook, you can access any information in a matter of seconds by browsing Google, and Twitter brings you news from all over the world even before it is published by the most prestigious newspapers or international news agencies. This paradigm shift has placed great power and extraordinary authority in the hands of public opinion in various fields.
For example, the great debates that we see on the Internet receive great attention, despite the fact that they contradict proven scientific facts. The most famous of these may be the debate about the fact that the Earth is flat, which is a topic that is attracting a wide audience on the Internet day after day, or the discussion about vaccinations given to children, and the false allegations that they are harmful and may cause the emergence of autism in children. All this is despite years of continuous scientific research to refute these misconceptions among the general public. What is more, is that the craze of social media has enabled famous people (such as media professionals and film actors) to wrongly influence public opinion about information and topics that don’t relate to them and that they do not have enough experience to speak about them in public.
Bit to remember: The revolution of the Internet and social media provoked the conflict between experts and the general public, and provided platforms for the transmission of false information.

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