Consistent followers of online culture will not be overly surprised at the major points in Wednesday's end-of-year announcement by Twitter. According to the popular social media platform's top trends, 2014 was the year of the selfie, while Ellen DeGeneres' Academy Awards selfie was named the "Golden Tweet". Also, pop stars featured significantly on Twitter this year, with Katy Perry and Justin Bieber showing the most growth in terms of new followers, while the Twitterverse loved it when New Zealand newcomer Lorde accepted her Grammy Award.
For anyone who missed Ms DeGeneres' selfie phenomenon that was taken at the 86th Oscars ceremony on May 2, DeGeneres assembled a group of well-known actors, including Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt and Bradley Cooper, for a selfie shot accompanied with the post, "If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever, #oscar". Regardless of whether you agreed with the Oscars host or not, the world's internet users showed their support in a historic manner, as Twitter reported that the picture was the most-tweeted entertainment moment, with nearly 255,000 tweets per minute, and, with more than 3.3 million retweets, it was also the most-retweeted post of all time.
If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014
In addition to the massive popularity of the Golden Tweet, the word selfie was published over 92 million times on Twitter this year, representing a 500 per cent increase compared to last year. Even a song written about selfies has received over 250 million views on YouTube. Although the word "selfie" was searched on Google far more last year after it was first introduced—Oxford Dictionary named it word of the year in 2013—it seems that people were more ready to run with it in 2014 and subsequently flooded the internet.
However, Twitter wasn't all about pop stars, TV shows and awards ceremonies in 2014, as the Scottish independence referendum (#IndyRef), the Hong Kong protests (#occupycentral) and the Ferguson protests after the Michael Brown shooting (#BlackLivesMatter) also received considerable attention. The mass Nigerian kidnapping was boosted by a photo tweet from U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, who held up a sign with the campaign's hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.