The Highs and the Lows of the 2014 Oscars

Last Sunday marked the 84^th annual Academy Awards. Hundreds of A-list celebrities put on their best attire and came out to celebrate each other’s magnificent work of the last year.

            Millions across the globe were live tweeting the event. If you weren’t near a T.V. and wanted to know what was happening, all you needed to do was look to Twitter. Every event from beginning to end was tweeted out immediately and quickly became a trending topic. From when Jennifer Lawrence fell yet again while exiting her limo, to when Steve McQueen accepted the Oscar for Best Picture for 12 Years A Slave.

            However, there was a short moment during the evening when it became difficult for followers to keep up with what was happening via Twitter. In the middle of the awards ceremony, host, Ellen DeGeneres decided to take a #selfiesunday with a dozen other celebrities including Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. She then prompted all of her viewers to make it the most retweeted tweet of all time. Not long after DeGeneres stated this, Twitter crashed for about 10 to 15 minutes during the show because so many people were trying to view and retweet the picture. On the bright side, the tweet did become the most retweeted tweet in history with over 4 million retweets.

            This particular Oscars was one that was full of “firsts.” Steve McQueen became the first black director to take home an Oscar for Best Picture. Alfonso Cuaron became the first Mexican to win for Best Director for Gravity. Disney took home its first Oscar in the Best Animated Feature category for Frozen. Robert Lopez became the first Filipino-American to win an Oscar for Best Original Song for his song “Let It Go” from the Frozen soundtrack and he also became the twelfth person to ever be an EGOT holder (an individual who has an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony).

            I think this particular Academy Awards ceremony is one that has been marked with change and diversity. The number of “Oscar firsts” this season show the growing diversity that is being accepted in the film industry and how much it has grown in the past 60 years alone. Another big change is the impact social media is having on. It’s opened doors for fans to reach their beloved celebrities and gives consumers an outlet to reach their providers. The shutdown that occurred during the show is an example of how quickly Twitter is growing and some of the many reasons social media users are utilizing the platform.