Long before there was Rotten Tomatoes or the Tomatometer, people relied on Siskel and Ebert to determine whether or not to see a movie. The columnists from the opposing Chicago papers turned movie reviews into an art — and a franchise. They became the gold standard — not just because of their famous “thumbs up/thumbs down” routine, but because they had rationale behind their choices. It was not just an opinion, rather it was a critique with sound reasoning behind their choices.
Social media has overshadowed any thoughtful analysis and become a mouthpiece for opinion without requiring any basis in fact. There is no thoughtful analysis or critique behind much of what is online — posts get a “like” without any thought-out rationale.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Discipline yourself to distinguish between opinion and critique and engage that critical thinking muscle your English teachers worked so hard to develop. A start comes from adding a “because” after your opinion and anchoring it to a “why.”
