I first experience live tweeting in BCM 325. I did have a twitter account before the course started but it was mainly to retweet cute puppies and funny memes. Now my 158 followers get insight on various sci-fi movies through my live-tweeting sessions. I want to be completely honest and say that it is a struggle to watch a movie you have never seen before, research about that movie, live tweet and enjoy the movie. For most of the movies, I was confused about what was going on. But in each movie, there was always something that stuck with me, whether it was a scene, a meme or a question.
From week 1 to week 6 we watched 6 different movies, I liked some and didn’t like others. The first week was hard as I was new to it all. I posted more about facts than about deeper thinking questions or comments. I tweeted out about the director, the cast, the cost production, the merchandise and things like that. I did favorite over 60 tweets that other people were posting. I retweeted a couple of tweets. I did not engage is commenting though. I think I was nervous, as well as focused on the movie and my own tweets.
The next week I made this study guide for the screening. It had details about the movie from setting to release date to quotes to memes to cast, pretty much everything on the tip sheet. It was very helpful, and I learned that if I do a bit of research beforehand I have a better understanding of the movie and an easier time live tweeting. This is the foundation of my strategy. I could also focus on other peoples tweets and try and engage with them. As the weeks went on I realized that yes my tweets matter, but it is more about how I engage with my classmates and their tweets. I made an effort to comment on other peoples tweets and try to ask questions. I also tried to ask questions on my tweets so that people can comment. I admit that I don’t think I am thinking deep enough about topics, but I still had some interesting conversations with people. Small steps are still steps.
I have learned heaps from the live tweeting experience. It has forced me to think about topics and scenes more analytically and not just for entertainment. I’d say that I watch a lot of movies and usually just for entertainment. Now with live tweeting making me think critically about certain movies, I try to analyze other movies that I watch… what is the deeper meaning of a romantic comedy?
I learned that I am a surface level person. I don’t try and think about things too hard because it might take the fun out of it. But there is more fun and brain stimulation to asking questions and reading peoples opinions about scenes in the movies. I want to be more aware of what I am watching and figure out the bigger meaning behind movies and such.
I have enjoyed live tweeting because I like to know other people’s opinions and thoughts on topics. And people are interesting. I am always impressed at how people interpret a scene or what they focus on and how it is so different from what I think about or didn’t even notice. I think I need to open up my mind more when I tweet about the movies and think more critically about the tweets. Again I need to work on the engagement I have with other people and try and create more in-depth conversations.
These are some tweets that I felt reflected my progress.
Week 3: Above is a slide show of tweets. The significance is that it shows I am trying to engage with other people. The context is still on the surface level, but it’s still progress. I also realized people like to know the story line, now an addition to my strategy.
Week 6: The slide above demonstrates multiple engagements that I had with my classmates. I commented and replied to people. My strategy continue to grow as I seek to ask more questions so that people will engage with me. I think I did well on this live tweeting session.
Above are some tweets throughout the 6 weeks that link to articles that I read and thought I should share with the class. Not quite academic sources but interesting enough.
Overall, I think I have made positive progress on the live tweeting since week 1. I can see improvement from the first session to this past session. I know that I am not the best, compared to some other classmates, but I hope to continue to engage in conversations and have more critical tweets in the future.
Amanda Bustos
Mandy's Blog 