[WTF Wednesday is a weekly opinion article in which Amy Killin shines the spotlight on something peculiar in the world of film and gives you, the reader, a chance to chime in with your two cents.]

This week’s WTF Wednesday comes in the form of a poke at the ‘Twitter Effect’ and why something that sounds so silly has Hollywood media researchers in some serious denial. By now, you’ve all heard of Twitter and the way it provides people with rant space – in 140 characters or less – to pave the way for celebrities and kids-locked-in-their-bedrooms alike, to have their say. In terms of responding to movies, the so-called ‘Twitter Effect’ occurs when a movie is released and people talk it up on the website, generating hype or negativity that has potential to influence a flick’s box-office run. But in a story noted by The Wrap, research company Ipsos OTX MediaCT has reared its head to report to Hollywood (and probably the world via their Twitter account) on their findings: of 24,000 surveyed film fans, only 1% use Twitter to recommend or comment on movies. In other words, their research indicates that the ‘Twitter Effect’ is a myth.

On the flip side, just under half of the people surveyed proved that discussion amongst family and friends was a way for one to get a feel for whether a movie will be good or not, and the motivation to take a trip to the movies – or not. Facebook cops a mention, accounting for the ability to provide 16% of our movie talk space, which overshadows Twitter merely because it is a more popular medium and, offers the same “status update” service with the bonus of profile stalking, friend request ignoring and crap gaming.

And while around 60% of our movie consciousness is dominated by advertising, it’s not the deciding factor in whether we go see it – that still comes from talking amongst each other. Hell, the last bad movie I saw made me want to climb a mountain and project my voice for the entire world to know, “DON’T DO IT… NOT WORTH IT”. What the researchers set out to debunk is the marketing power of Twitter but the point they miss completely is this: it does not matter how we get talking about movies, it’s just that we do…and we always will.

Regardless of quasi viral tweets, status updates from the person you hated in high school, and even the opinions of a bunch of film geek critics speaking from the outer limits of the internet universe…bad movies breed from bad filmmaking and those that become award-winners or cult classics deserve to take the credit for themselves and not put their successes down to being “popular on the internet”. If anything, Hollywood should be encouraging online discussion and provoking interest in their own product through the social-media websites that most of us use everyday.

I’ll say WTF to anyone who seeks to put down the influence of social-media websites and thus, close themselves off to the advertising potential available – practically hand delivered in a personal sense – to the people they want in cinema house seats.

So on this awkward hump day, my question to you is this…

How are you courted into a seat at the cinema?

Is it by Twitter and/or Facebook recommendations? Movie websites? Are you swayed by critics? Hooked by advertising? Or susceptible to friendly banter?

We here at CPR won’t hold it against you if we don’t come to mind first…promise. But we will ask you to follow us on Twitter.