Social engineering has also been defined as "any act that influences a person to take an action that may or may not be in their best interests."
That definition sounds more like "Peer Pressure."
When hacking was "growing up," Social Engineering was the number one method of breaking into computer systems, getting free phone service, or even stealing money from Western Union locations. If you've ever called up a company and pretended to be someone else in order to get the person on the phone to do something for you that they would never do for a regular person (someone who is not a company insider or working with an insider), then you've engaged in social engineering.
One actual example would be to call a company using an internal phone directory. You tell the person you were told by their boss (you have their name in the directory) that the person you're speaking to could help you. Then you ask questions that get more info/names/numbers. At some point, you really sound like an insider who knows people. It doesn't take much more than that to Social Engineer someone into giving out private info such as employee addresses, computer passwords or security procedures.
Any definition that includes "may or may not" is not really defining much!
"Subject Matter Expert (SME): Someone who
may or may not be considered an expert in a given topic or skillset."
