The MovieGoer App: You are More Influential than Roger Ebert

Nettle’s MovieGoer app makes you the critic I want to listen to.

Nettle’s new MovieGoer app is only one example of the dominating trend. The Google Ventures-backed startup created MovieGoer with the goal of making going to the movies a more social experience. With Facebook and Twitter integrated into the app, MovieGoer lets you comment on movies you see and follow the movies your friends are seeing too.

This is not a totally novel idea. Popular movie sites like Rotten Tomatoes have already gone social, allowing you to comment on and like content on their site through your Facebook account. Perhaps MovieGoer’s virtue is in its Google+ like organization. With the feature MovieGoer Circle you can cultivate a close network of friends and family whose tastes you appreciate. Also, MovieGoer adds the option to record 15-second videos reviewing the movies you see. So whether you’re a textual or visual critic—don’t worry—your snarky opinions will be heard.

Nettle is capitalizing on something that’s increasingly more true with digital everything. We care less and less about the voice of the professional. A New York Times “Four Stars” means nothing to anyone anymore, and we stopped listening to Roger Ebert long before he made that awful comment about the late Jackass hero Ryan Dunn.

The voices we trust, and will continue trusting, are the ones that appear eloquently and efficiently through all our social networks. Like everybody, I aimlessly scroll through my Facebook newsfeed all the time. I also scroll aimlessly through news sites all the time. I only stop to read something or click on a link when a person has worked hard enough to intrigue me and engage me. And if the person’s opinions live up to their delivery, I’ll keep coming back and trust what they’re pushing. That’s what MovieGoer is for. In the same vein, that’s exactly what Spotify Social is for. The “Critic” in the turtleneck is dead, or at least his authority is. The new influential voice, the future’s proprietor of good taste, is hanging out somewhere on your friend list.

Follow Kyle @KyleKouri