Everyone is an author. To be completely honest, only part of
me agrees with this statement; the other part of me is pulling back, not
willing to fully accept it. To me, the word author has always held so much more
weight. It’s not just a noun, it’s a title. Something that isn't merely given,
but earned through hard work and careful refinement of skills.
When I was much younger I wanted to be an author when I grew up. I even read a book about how one of my favorites had started their writing career. If you had told me then I could become one by updating my Facebook status, I probably would have been a little put out.
Looking more closely at what the word itself means, I realize my interpretation of it is much different. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an author as “a person who has written something...” In this light then, anyone who can write can be an author. For example, Twitter’s 232 million monthly active users, and Facebook’s reported average of 665 million active users, assuming they wrote something at some point, are all authors.
Looking more closely at what the word itself means, I realize my interpretation of it is much different. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an author as “a person who has written something...” In this light then, anyone who can write can be an author. For example, Twitter’s 232 million monthly active users, and Facebook’s reported average of 665 million active users, assuming they wrote something at some point, are all authors.
So sure, everyone’s an author. But
if everyone is something, does being that something have much meaning?
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