Just to show how big social media is, on the 2nd March 2014 Ellen DeGeneres released a selfie photograph onto Twitter, that Bradley Cooper had taken of a group of well-known actors at the Oscars. This went viral as soon as the picture was taken to then show up on many of Ellen DeGeneres followers home page, the followers where then able to “retweet” this to their friends and followers and this is where the story began. So far the picture has had over 3million retweets, making it the most retweeted picture in the world and also the most famous selfie.
The picture managed to be bigger news than the Oscars itself, with how Bradley Cooper managed to fit so many famous actors into one selfie. This photo was better than any professional photo taken, as it is personal to the actors and with it being taken on a Samsung smartphone meant that it could be loaded onto social networking sites at a touch of a button, or a screen. The photo also gives a good sense of the atmosphere at the Oscars, with a group of famous actors having fun.
The Age of Selfies
Selfies have been popular for many years, and ever since smart phones have been developed, are increasingly becoming more popular with how easy it is to share your photo’s and also take the photo itself with there being a front camera on many modern smartphones. With other pictures being taken of Bradley Cooper taking the selfie, many will notice that he is using a Samsung phone which meant that this has also been great publicity for not only the actors but also for the company Samsung. People may ask why did he Bradley Cooper take a picture himself when there were many other photographers there, well the answer is for the sense of fun and being able to fit so many people into a selfie which can only be taken at the arms length of the person taking the photo.
Stories like this just show how viral social networking sites are. News can be spread so quickly with how someone can release a story or a picture and this can be spread by people “sharing” and “retweeting”. The more something is spread, the more people want to get involved with their comments and their sharing of the photo or news to their friends and followers.
The Simpsons Version
People also like to compete with things like this and have some fun making their own versions, so cleverly Matt Groening has done his own form of the picture turning the actors into lookalike Simpsons and releasing this picture through Homer Simpson’s Twitter page, showing that Homer Simpson is purposely being kept out of the photo. He also says “look for Bart” making it a bit like the game “Where’s Wally”. The question is, will this Twitter picture get as many “retweets” as the original one that Ellen DeGeneres tweeted.
Sometimes we are finding that news is seen first through social networking sites before reaching any television news or website, so if anyone wants to keep up with all the latest gossip and breaking news then be sure to stay on all your social networking sites as you will often here it there first. With news like this that hit the news headlines the following day, it makes you think what will be next to happen.
