Celebs Throwing Shady Glances: Oscars Edition

Hollywood's biggest night took over social media last night as the 88th Academy Awards took the stage.

The talk of the night was certainly Leonardo DiCaprio and his win for best actor.  This became the most talked-about moment on Facebook and even overtook Ellen DeGeneres' 2014 record-breaking selfie as the most-tweeted Academy Awards moment ever!

And beyond Leo, we had a whole NEW slew of my latest obsession: Celebrities Throwing Shady Glances!

The Oscar for Shadiest Glance Moment goes to: The stuffy aisle of tuxedo-clad men!

Yup, that's right, a whole aisle!  Jenny Bevan won her second Oscar for Best Costume Designer (this time for Mad Max).  As she strode down the row to receive her award, it seemed the entire aisle gave her shade!  Men dressed to the nines in the typical Oscar-worthy tuxedos weren't even clapping as they looked her up and down.  Seems like they were not too fond of her casual attire, as she was wearing a leather jacket, casual top and minimal makeup.  SHADY!!! On a side-note, I say KUDOS to Jenny for being herself and wearing whatever she wanted to!!

The Shadiest Glance Honorable Mention (yeah, that's not really an Oscars thing, but we'll go with it!) goes to Chrissy Teigen!  Chrissy's faces have been memes before, notably after making overly expressive faces at the Golden Globes.  Her cringe-worthy face last night was aired after Sarah Silverman came onto stage, but Chrissy later tweeted that she was making the face about an earlier joke about Black History Month, not about Sarah! 

Did you see any other glances you thought should be nominated for "Shadiest Glance"?  Which do you think was the shadiest?

Facebook Gets Emotional!

The time has FINALLY come.  I know we've all been waiting for this day at LEAST since last September when Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook was looking into new emotion buttons to give users options other than just "liking" a post.  For awhile, that feature was only available in Ireland and Spain.  Finally, this week, they have been released to the US! 

 

Ever since that September hint toward new reaction emotions, many tech blogs have speculated that a "dislike" button might come.  While there is no "dislike" button yet, the new reaction buttons cover a larger range of emotions. You might have noticed that now when you hover over the "thumbs up" to like a picture, several other emotion options pop-up, including:

HEART: Meaning you "love" this

LAUGH FACE: Means "haha!"

SURPRISED FACE: Means "Wow"

SAD FACE: Obviously, means you're sad

ANGRY FACE:  Meaning the content makes you angry

 

Does that cover the gamut of emotions?  Seems to me that these emotions - especially the "wow" and "angry" ones, indicate that Facebook is set on solidifying itself as a popular place for news, as they conjure up a perfect reaction to many editorial articles and headlines. But did they really need to go from ONE emotion to SIX!?  Looking through my Facebook feed, I have mostly seen the use of the "love" button and less of the "wow" button.  Certainly, the sad button will be helpful now so that we don't have to "like" negative news the other friends share such as losing a job or a loved one.

It'll be interesting to see if Facebook keeps all six emotions, or alternates them, similar to how SnapChat alternates its filters.  I predict that they will test which are used the most and we could see a day where the least used emotions are replaced with other options.

 

 OK, so what are your thoughts on the long-awaited emotions? Do you give them a "WOW" or are you "SAD" about the change?

Grammy Edition: Celeb's Throwing Shady Glances?

So, we've been stressing for years now that every word you put on social media could be critiqued and used against you.  Now, we're taking this warning to a whole new level.  In my recent post-awards-show social media monitoring, I've noticed an interesting trend taking shape.  We are no longer just being held accountable for every word, but every FACE we make too!

A perfect example of this happened during last night's Grammy Awards.  Taylor Swift won for Best Album of the Year, and gave a kind-of-empowerment speech about getting credit for your own hard work.  During the speech, the cameras panned the audience, and happened across singer Toni Kelly.  Toni's face appeared slightly less than pleased, and EVERYBODY noticed.  Headlines started going around that Toni was giving "shady side eye" to Taylor and rumors started that they must not like each other.  All from one second of a facial expression. 

This isn't the first time this has happened. Just a month ago at the Golden Globes, one of the most popular post-show stories on social media was a gif of Leonardo DiCaprio's face when Lady Gaga passed and bumped him on her way to get her award.  Again, accusations of Leo "throwing major shade" at Gaga flooded social media.  

Is this fair? Do you think these celebs are really hating on each other, or just caught by a camera at a bad moment?

#TheDollEvolves: Barbie Back In The Spotlight

Barbie dolls have been dominating social media feeds since Mattel unveiled its new line of dolls last week: The Fashionistas line.  The big news is that the line includes three new body types of the dolls, tall, curvy and petite.  

Social media has been calling for this for years, with blog posts and mocking memes about how unrealistic the original Barbie's body type is.  So you would think the general Twitter-sphere would be overjoyed with this change, right?  Well, kinda right.  The response has been generally positive, but not without its naysayers.  Some people are claiming that the new line, which came with its own hashtag, #TheDollEvolves, was pandering to political correctness or even putting overdue emphasis on the "type" of body that Barbie has.  

But let's not focus only on the negative!  Within hours of the release, Barbie was trending on social media and much of the conversation was high praise!  

What do you think of the new dolls?  Have you been waiting for Mattel to make this change, or do you agree with the naysayers?