The “selfie” might have been around for a while, but in 2014 its popularity sky-rockets. If you want proof, US TV presenter Ellen DeGeneres’ snap, taken at the 2014 Academy Awards on 2 March, becomes the most widespread social networking message since Twitter began in 2006, with more than 1 million retweets in little over an hour.
The image features a host of A-list movie stars, including Channing Tatum, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto, Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Lupita Nyong’o and her brother Peter Nyong’o.
Proving just how much TV viewing habits have changed, viewers of the 86th Academy Awards in 2014 were 'second screening' as the show progressed, joining in with the action and showing their appreciation by sharing the message.
As of 15.00 GMT on March 3rd, the message on the micro blogging social network had gained over 2.6 million retweets. To date, the retweet count has reached over 3.3 million, with over 2 million favourites.
The record had previously been held by a message from Barack Obama to his followers on Twitter, shortly after his re-election as US President in November 2012. That message, which read simply "Four more years" and included a photo of the President hugging his wife Michelle, was tweeted from Mr Obama's account at 04:16 GMT on 7 November 2012.
