Well, today is the day. It has been one whole year since I joined Twitter at 3pm PT on a warm summer afternoon on this date, June 27, 2012. The timing of me joining this powerful social media platform could not have been any better. It came one exact month before the beginning of a golden Olympic fortnight in Great Britain, just two days after the release of an album by a band I've had the opportunity to meet 9 years ago - Linkin Park, and on the same day as the season 27 premiere of my favorite show, The Real World. And from then on, my social media life hasn't been the same since.
The last 365 days have seen me experience through this network major news stories, memorable sporting events, exciting entertainment and a further enhancement of a long relationship. There were the tragedies in Connecticut, Boston and Oklahoma, a terrible hurricane that ravaged the East Coast, the resignation of a pope and a reelection of a president, and yesterday's historic Supreme Court ruling, among others. In the sports side of things besides London 2012, there was, among other things, the Giants winning another World Series, the Ravens just beating out my Niners in Super Bowl XLVII and a dramatic NBA postseason - the Warriors on a great run and one of the best NBA Finals ever. And in entertainment, we had everything from chart-topping music and great movies & TV, to Amanda Bynes' everyday occurrences dominating the gossip.
What's been the highlight for me? I've always been a loyal fan of MTV's The Real World going all the way back to high school, and this past year has seen me enhance this great, long relationship through twitter. It began with me sending welcome tweets to the St. Thomas cast just a few hours before it premiered on the East Coast - which also took place on this day one year ago tonight, and Trey & Laura were the first ones to tweet back to me. Ever since, the entire STT & PDX casts, as well a lot of their fellow RW & Challenge alumni - about 90 of them in all, have interacted with me on Twitter & Instagram. They've been like an extra group of friends to me, and they've been very receptive of me in the social media world. For someone who's not met a cast member from any MTV show in person but whose time should come very shortly, it's me having an unprecedented opportunity to interact directly with them that's allowed me to enjoy Real World even more.
It was also because of Twitter that they helped reintroduce me to The Challenge. I hadn't traditionally been big on following it as much as I do RW, but the interaction I had with 26 of the 32 competitors for whom I had more of a familiarity with than others, coupled with watching these people in an environment totally new to me and carrying the competitive inspiration & momentum from the London Olympics, made me enjoy Battle of the Seasons that much more. It was also there where I got to see the power & communal experience of television and the spontaneous interaction of Twitter collide for the first time.
And just recently, I got engaged in Real World Portland. I got to follow the cast just as soon as filming ended in November last year back when they were unknown, and right up to the premiere & through the season. It might not be the most watched season ever, but PDX is now a season that joins that select group of those RW seasons that stand out to me most. Yes there were all the drama amongst the cast - the most-vicious RW fight ever comes to mind, but there was also a cast who, like STT, have been fan friendly, and all the eight castmates have interacted with me. In fact, two members of RWPDX - Jessica & Averey - actually follow me, both by surprise.
I've done a lot of live tweeting "As DC Sees It" on every episode of these three seasons, growing from just a few tweets early on to later including just about every event & quote. The comments the cast have tweeted back to me are many: from Marlon in Portland teasing at the huge drama of his season well before we saw the trailer, and Dustin & Nany talking about the tough environment of living in the BOTS house in Turkey; to Ashley from San Diego after the Sandy Hook tragedy in her home state and various members wishing me happy birthday last November. And because of this show I've also been introduced to new twitter friends who I've never met or heard of before but share the same passion for this franchise as me, & are those who, amongst me & each other, talk everyday about these shows, both on twitter and numerous podcasts & forums: Andrew, David, Morgan, Stefan, Whitney, Kevin, Neya, Ace and others too many to mention.
Another highlight for me was experiencing the biggest events through twitter. There's no place where people are able to talk about the biggest events & stories and I got to see it all in the last year on here. For last year's biggest event: the London Olympics, I got to be part of a record engagement in the sports event I look forward to more than any other, and I followed the action both as it took place there & later on here. On Super Bowl Sunday - a day that saw me be engaged in the biggest single day sports event like never before thanks to the 49ers making it to New Orleans, I set my all time one-day tweet record at over 400 tweets (or RT's) through the course of that February day. From the buildup that started at the end of the NFC championship game, through the halftime show & blackout, to the comeback that almost was & the disparity of losing in the last minute but being proud at the same time for Ray Lewis & fellow Baltimorean Trey from RWSTT, it was the most exciting period of this past year for me on twitter.
Similar events, not matching those two events, have also seen strong engagement from me, including big sporting events (such as the NBA postseason that concluded last Thursday and the Giants World Series win), every major awards show (MTV's VMAs, the Grammys & so forth), and some others along the way too. And I got an interact from a few athletes, including Olympic gold medalists Kayla Harrison & Jordan Burroughs during London, bobsled pilot Steven Holcomb who gave me a follow during the pre-Sochi winter sports season, and recently Jose Bautista from the Blue Jays gave me a follow.
With all of these things, I have been able to experience it all through my twitter app on my iPhone and later on my iPad. There have been so many instances where I had to keep my eye on that news feed during many of the past year's biggest events, and see if I wanted to RT or favor someone's tweet. And there hasn't been that much time in the last year that I've not spent at least several hours without having a iPhone or iPad with me.
And now, year 2 of @DC408dxtr on Twitter is only just beginning. Starting in 13 days from tonight, it's another season of The Challenge, and I'll be anxious to follow Rivals 2, this time with the big name veterans, for whom I'm gonna be watching most of them for the first time since their RW season, joining those who I became familiar with last fall as both veterans & rookies compete on the same playing field. Judging from the trailer, it promises to live up to TJ Lavin's word of being the best one yet, and you can only imagine the madhouse Twitter will be come premiere night. And while I'm not ready to call in or appear on camera yet, I'll be able to take part in every chat with the cast thanks to me tweeting questions to them.
But that is just the appetizer: in 22 days from now, in mid-July to be exact, I will be taking this baby on the road. For someone who doesn't travel much & who got an iPhone since my last trip two years ago this summer, this'll be the first vacation I truly get to share with the social media world. And where better to do it than in the one city outside of the Bay Area that I've grown the greatest love affair with: Las Vegas. I'll be able to use my social media avenues: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook for the inner circle, YouTube, Vine & others where I'm on, to communicate my updates & images from Sin City. So, for the first time ever...for me at least, "What Happens in Vegas...Gets Posted by DC for Everyone to See." Can't wait for that.
Finally, I saved the best for last: the opportunity to say thanks. To all of my followers for staying loyal to me over the course of the past year & putting up with my frequent flooding of your timelines, thanks for your patronage & loyalty. To those who interacted with - whether you're in my family or went to school with me & was brought to here from FB & other networks, those who've I gotten to know on here & have never met in person, or the famous people I've had to pleasure to interact on here - a thanks to you also. The great support & respect I've received is very gratifying, and as always I'm most appreciative. It has been a great 12 months experiencing some of the most memorable events & stories ever and so much more on twitter, and I can't wait for what the next 12 have in store.
From me to you, here's to 365 great days, and here's to 365 more and beyond. Thank you.
- @DC408dxtr
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