In the New York Times Article, “Everybody’s a Critic. And That’s How It Should Be,” A. O. Scott contemplates about how everyone has the ability to criticize and create dialogue about the things they experience throughout their lives. It’s kind of ironic to see a professional movie critic preaching that anyone is capable of doing his job without any preparation or experience. Scott believes that in our society, people have become too accustomed to just accepting other people’s opinions without applying much of their own thought or analysis to them. Two big factors that could have resulted this atmosphere of conformity could be social media and and our compulsive consumerism. Its about time for individuals to finally take matters into their own hands by taking some time out of their day and using it to formulate opinions based on their own creativity and interests.

I found it interesting how Scott mentioned that “on the Internet, everyone is a critic — a Yelp-fueled takedown artist, an Amazon scholar, a cheerleader empowered by social media to Like and to Share.” I completely agree with his concept that online anyone could be a critic; since being a critic means to simple state your stance/opinion of something. Although social media could lead to people mindlessly reading other peoples words and accepting them as their own, I see it as the perfect place to facilitate brainstorming and the creation of ideas. As Scott discussed in his article, it’s important for people to make informed and substantiated critique; not just spew the first thoughts that come to mind. With the help of social media and many other online websites we could all make our voices heard, but let’s make them count.