Most people trust social media more than critics when it comes to TV recommendations

When it comes to TV show recommendations, new research suggests that Americans are almost twice as likely to trust random social media users over professional critics.While investigating the recommendation pop-culture habits of 2,000 respondents, a recent poll discovered that only 9% say they regularly turn to critics for advice on what to watch, read, or play.Instead, respondents cited close friends (47%), family members (44%), streaming platform algorithms (21%), and even "social media users" (18%) before critics.

And while five out of every six people will explore other peoples' reviews online, more of them turn to user-driven spaces like YouTube (50%) and Amazon (46%) over established review aggregators, such as Rotten Tomatoes (24%) or Metacritic (6%).The survey, which was conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Element Electronics, also found that just under seven in 10 people (68%) will check out a new title within a few weeks of it being recommended — and at least one in ten (11%) will do it as soon as possible.