What started as an opportunity for the George Washington to keep the nation updated on the government's workings seems a tad dated in a world where everyone has much greater ability to share information than anyone had in the 1990s, to say nothing of the 1790s.
This is why, in our new social frontier, it matters much less what the president actually says to the nation, than what everyone says to each other during and after his speech.
Welcome to the State of the Union conversation.
During the address, most of the trending topics on Twitter were about or from the speech. The standard #SOTU tag was and still is being deployed for commentary and conversation on the speech on both sides of the aisle.
Opponents took the time to let everyone know how much the president annoys them, with the trending #ThingsIdRatherDoThanWatchSOTU.
"Chew poop." tweeted @tiegrrrlily.
As a general response @xtaylorarispe said, "#ThingsIdRatherDoThanWatchSOTU is trending? Don't get upset with our government when you won't do your part in return."
The faces and reactions of Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House John Boehner, seated behind the president, received a lot of attention through the night. In particular, Joe Biden's dark-red, bloodshot left eyeball drew a lot of attention, as did the usual mix of behaviors that make Biden look like a kid in church.
For Boehner, it was the opposite. The speaker frequently resembled a cardboard cut-out, in both stillness and color.
Marco Rubio's delivery of the GOP's rebuttal afterwards also proved popular online, although comments focused more on his water bottle, lip-licking and profuse sweating than anything he said. #hydration and #PolandSpring, his water bottle's brand, picked up through his speech.
CNN asked viewers to sum up the event with #TweetOfTheUnion and compiled responses, which seemed to indicate a lot of frustration with inactivity, cynical dismissals of the whole event and legitimate concerns about specific issues, from gun control to the struggle of the middle class, a political constant for more than 40 years.
Overall @BIGJOEONTHEGO probably summed the evening, and all the reactions best: "Some loved it, some hated it, some clapped, some frowned, basically the same as ever"
