And the award goes to… TWITTER!
Sunday night was the big night for a little man named Oscar. I’m not one to dress up and go to a party to watch the Academy Awards. I probably wouldn’t have watched even though Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were hosting (yes, even though I’m under 30 I do know who they are!). But it was on, and I was interested, and it’s what my parents were watching on the HD big-screen.
What made the night even more entertaining was the fact that two of my friends constantly tweeted their opinions throughout the night. Not gonna lie, some of the stuff they were saying was pretty funny, for example,
‘They announced that the Twilight kids would be coming up, and my mom goes: “Guess that’s the salute to horror.” BAM!’ via @grace_kendall
‘Feel like I watched an episode of I Love the 80s but really its I Love John Hughes #genius’ via @GTproductions.
At one point, I even acknowledged on my own Twitter how much I enjoyed both of my friends comments. The immediate response from @grace_kendall : Ha, glad you appreciate it! My mom thinks I’m just talking to myself. According to @GTproductions “I loved the tweets, it made the show a global experience, I was tweeting with someone in the UK and in Cali about it, and instantly!”
I didn’t go through the trouble of trolling the Twitter-sphere to see what everyone was saying, and would occasionally glance at the Twitter feed that showed up on the Google page when I needed to look up an actor or a film.
The thing that makes Twitter such a great platform for this kind of sharing is the fact that now, instead of just talking to those that are also watching the show with us (even if that is just our goldfish, Oscar) we have the ability to impart our opinion to the world. Plus, those that want to hear us, like I wanted to hear my friends, are able to do so. And those that want to shut us out, can just ignore us! I just wanted to know what my friends were saying, and Twitter gave me this option. For people like @GTproductions, she even took the opportunity to engage with others from around the world. If I had wanted to follow hashtag topics to see what everyone was saying, I had that alternative as well.
Who knows, Twitter might be the starting ground for the next Roger Ebert.
What was your Twitter Academy Awards experience?
Image via ianmunroe
Great post!
I had the opposite experience. I don't watch much TV so my Academy Awards experience consisted entirely of a few moments spent on Twitter!
From what I can tell, the streaming commentary makes a better conversational condiment than it does a main course. I'm sure the next Roger Ebert is already out there, agonizing over 140 vicious characters. =)
Nice article! And thanks for the shout-out. I'm such a commentary whore, and liveblogging is a nice way to indulge in that need to respond. TV is such a non-participatory medium; the Internet has spoiled me.
I do usually lose a few followers each time I live-tweet anything, but I tend to gain a few new friends in the process as well. Twitter is a nice playground.
Are you kidding??? Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are two of my absolute favorite actors.