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?

The Most TITANIC Moment of The Golden Globes

Last night's Golden Globes were quite entertaining, don't you think!?

And while I usually come to you touting new social media records being broken by the number of tweets during these events, we didn't break any last night.

But what we DID break was a few million hearts during what I am calling the most TITANIC moment of the Golden Globes. 

Can you guess?

I'll give you a hint.

Leonardo DiCaprio.

And another hint... Kate Winslet.

I'm out of hints!  It was the Kate and Leo moment that got the internet buzzing up a storm!

It was really just a little hug and maybe kiss on the cheek (or was that my imagination!?).  But Titanic fans around the world were chiming in on the tiny intimate moment between one of our favorite on-screen couples of all time.  

And to make things better yet, they both won last night!  Kate won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Steve Jobs and Leo won for Best Actor for his lead role in The Revenant.  

So did their reunion make your heart flutter?  What was your favorite part of the Golden Globes?

CES Hashtags Have Been Hijacked! You'll Never Guess Who Did It!

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opened its doors yesterday in Vegas, and the floodgates of new tech releases and product launches opened too! 

But before I cover all my favorites (Don't worry! I will cover them, check out AppChick.com.) there's a little snafu happening on social media concerning CES that is just too ridiculous not to talk about!

The CES hashtags have been hacked!! Okay, not REALLY hacked, but hijacked at least!  See, strip clubs all around the area have been using all the #CES hashtags nonstop since the conference started earlier today.  So much so, that you're likely to find just as many ads for strip clubs when using the hashtags as you are finding actual Consumer Electronics Show content!

To be honest, it is not a bad marketing idea.  Companies and brands are smart to tap into large groups of potential consumers in their areas.  But when it is a strip club, it just seems different!  I don't need pictures of girls in skimpy bikinis when I search for cool CES information!

Do you think strip clubs should be allowed to use this hashtag hacking tactic!?

LAX Gives Holiday Travelers a Doggie Destress!

Christmas and airports are usually thought to be a chaotic mix.  SO many people traveling at once, so much luggage and so many flight delays.  ARGH!  It's enough to stress out even the most zen-focused yogi!  

United Airlines has a solution for us and it's just about the cutest thing you've ever seen.  The program is called "United Paws" and is bringing more than 200 dogs to seven of the airline's hubs through Wednesday.

Yes, dogs!! Research shows that five minutes spent with a dog can decrease stress hormones and lower blood pressure.  So, the #UnitedPaws pups are specially trained "comfort dogs" and are led around the terminals by handlers so that stressed fliers can pet and play with the pooches!  

LAX will host the furry friends, as well as terminals in Chicago, Washington, Denver, Houston, Newark and Cleveland. There are already tons of Twitter and Facebook pics of travelers cuddling up with the sweet doggies.  It is enough to make me want to buy a last minute ticket somewhere!!  But don't worry if you aren't flying this Christmas.  LAX is funding a similar program, called Pets Unstressing Passengers (PUP), throughout the year!

And now, just for cuteness sake, here's some pics of the sweet doggies and their traveling friends. Happy travels!