While every media outlet today is assaulting the workforce nationwide with recaps of the Oscars, in true Ypulse fashion, we break it down from a youth culture perspective. So today, instead of reminding you about the winning list, how good, bad, ugly, gorgeous, underwhelming, or surprising the evening was, we bring you the Oscars: Best of the Internet. Because it wouldn’t be a true Millennial experience if we didn’t get our second screens out, now would it? So, instead of reviewing the main show, we’re going to break down what happened behind the curtain that is the second screen, because the only way to stay relevant in the eyes of youth culture is to bring your other screens out and get a little Meta.
The nation saw quite clearly just how powerful live-tweeting was during the Presidential debates. In their article, Twitter, Tell Me What to Think: Live-Tweeting The 2012 Presidential Debates, MTV Insights reported “Social media has been playing a crucial role in the way Millennials talk about politics for quite some time, and that has never been more apparent than during the current election season. Following the presidential debate in Denver on October 3, Twitter announced that there were more than 10 million Tweets that evening, making it the most tweeted-about event in U.S. politics.” In the same vein, any live show should learn from this, especially an event like the Oscars.
For the past few years, the Oscars have been struggling to win over Millennial viewers. Last night’s show rose up a few generations when you consider Gen Xer host, Seth MacFarlane – unlike last year’s involvement of a Millennial hosts, James Franco and Anne Hathaway.
Jennifer Lawrence, 22, pretty much represented Millennials worldwide last night, (through the lens of the Academy), while Kristen Stewart, also 22, was a prime example of what “not to do” when sitting at the grown-up table. Anne Hathaway, 30, a Millennial cusper, didn’t exactly get recognition for her acting chops with a dedicated Twitter feed highlighting her overexposed assets. The media won’t let us forget that Jennifer Lawrence, the youngen, FELL, but her acceptance and total ownership of the mishap on-stage won her true praise and the internet audience cheered through Gifs and live comments. Mashable praised her via Gifs as they highlighted her most humble moments while Buzzfeed went so far as to dedicate an entire recap of Jennifer Lawrence “Epic Faces”, which helped provide some real humor to the event. Number 15: “That’s Going To Be An Epic Gif” says it all and the statement: “GO JENNIFER LAWRENCE!!!!!!! Only the COOLEST people fall on stage!!” was retweeted over 27,000 times in just under two hours. Her own ability to laugh at herself on live television and stay humble is the true anthem of the Millennial aspiration.
Speaking of self-humor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt photo-bombing the pre-oscars live red carpet climbed the charts on Reddit, and once Pete Cashmore of Mashable tweeted it from Joseph’s twitter feed, mass reverberation ensued, eventually hitting front page recognition on Mashable’s site. A few hours into the night, it became a true highlight. Joseph Gordon-Levitt also uploaded a backstage funny-face with Daniel Radcliffe, posting it to Reddit. Riding the wave of the “Selfie”, The Wall Street Journal supplied a list of some of the best Instagram feeds to check out before, during and after the big show. The Instagram list included make-up artists, hair / fashion stylists, manicurists, accessory designers and red carpet TV hosts, giving the viewer a true back stage pass from the insider perspectives that actually helped run the show. And no collaborative movement would be complete with the experiential outlet of Twitter’s shortform-video app Vine. Fast Company Co.Create caught up with all the artists behind the Vines, summing up the best-of for the night.
In true crowdsourced fashion, an important highlight of the evening, which wasn’t exactly the main attraction, was the winner for best live-action short film, Curfew. This film, along with three other nominees, were solely funded on Kickstarter, proving that the Millennial collaboration boom is seeping its way into historic institutions.
Now of course, Marketers tried to capitalize on the event hoping to gain Superbowl success like Oreo or Audi did, but unfortunately many of them missed the boat. Convince&Convert reported the 17 most failed brand tweets from the Oscars.
Gawker, New York Magazine’s, The Fug Girls and David Edelstein were all live chatting, blogging and tweeting the night away with true commentary, standing in for Seth McFarlane on the back end of things. Even far off from the UK (representing Adele pride, perhaps?) The Guardian gave a big dose of honesty in its live coverage, winning hundreds of live comments from the U.S.
In a world where audiences are generating supplemental content during shows like the Oscars, digitally native Millennials (and the rising next generation) perceive this “universe” of content as the experience itself. Gone are the days when the show itself made up the experience of “watching the Oscars”. Last night’s Oscars highlight a new viewing experience, where the social supplemental content created around a show are as key to the experience as the show itself once was on its own. The content co-creators are now just as important as its producers.
