Reflection on Social Media Case 2: Ellen Degeneres and the most Retweeted Photo
Ellen Degeneres is one of the most popular celebrities and talk show hosts in the country. I personally have always loved watching her talk show with fun segments and generous donations. My family and I always love to watch the Oscars and Grammys together, so in 2014 we were all excited to find out that Ellen was hosting the Oscars. In my family we make it a point to try and see all, if not as many as possible, of the best picture nominees before the Oscars premiere. While watching the award show together with my family, we were so excited to see the selfie that Bradley Cooper took of all of these amazing and random celebrities. The first thing my older sister did was retweet the picture. By the next morning all of the major news networks were talking about the picture and the challenge that came with it.
While I watched the selfie and challenge unfold, I didn’t know that it was a type of publicity stunt to promote the Oscars. I thought it was just Ellen doing something funny, like how she ordered pizza during the awards show. In comparison to the Wendy’s retweet, this to me is an example of how something goes viral. With the Ellen selfie, the people involved were celebrities, so they already have an existing fan base. Before Wendy’s tweeted Carter Wilkerson back, he only had about 150 followers, but the next day, Carter had over 67,000 followers. This built a fan base for him.
In my opinion, I love Ellen, and I would normally want her to win, but since Carter is just a regular kid who really just wants some chicken nuggets, I would want him to win. I understand that there is debate on why this even matters, but to many of the people around the world it matters a lot. Social media has completely taken over many of our values as a whole. Twenty years ago, Twitter wasn’t invented and we had no idea what “going viral” meant. As a society we see importance in the fact that something or someone has gone viral. There are so many people who are considered celebrities because of a video, story, or image that has spread throughout social media. We, through social media, create our own celebrities.
Hey Emily, loved your post! I liked how you mentioned the existing fanbase played an important factor in the popularity of the video. Unlike the Wendy's guy, these celebrities are well established and have tons of followings. Not to mentioned they did it during a major public event to grab the attention and utilize watchers. I also think going viral in a sense implies small beginnings. Like a natural virus it starts small and grows, like the Wendy's guy! So it was more impacting to see a guy from nowhere rise at an extraordinary rate. Also a side comment on your post format. For me your second paragraph has indenting issues and is only two lines that force the reader to scroll sideways a bit to read your post! Good luck with the rest of class and great job!
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