Yesterday, David Chen live-tweeted the process of becoming an American citizen when he, along with 900 other individuals, participated in the Naturalization Oath Ceremony at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Chen, the managing editor of /Film, is used to using his Twitter account to live-tweet film festivals or events like Comic Con, but this was something different.

“I didn’t anticipate being able to live-tweet the ceremony, because I had heard a rumor that they would confiscate my electronic devices. This ended up not being true, so after I checked in, I realized I had an opportunity to show people an aspect of citizenship that they might not usually be privy to. And I took it.”

In addition to sending out tweets about the ceremony, Chen also uploaded videos to YouTube, photos to Flickr and even took the time to do an audio interview with another new citizen.

After the ceremony, Chen wrote about the experience on his blog, sharing what it means to be an American to him. Born in Taiwan, Chen’s family came to America when he was two years old. Now more than 20 years later, he’s officially a U.S. citizen.

We’ve seen examples of people using social media to share love, report on breaking news and even on the birth of a child. It only makes sense that we now have one of the first instances of someone live-tweeting the naturalization process.

The mobile nature of something like Twitter — Chen was able to send out updates as he waited in line for his certificate, prepared to say the oath, etc. — makes it the perfect medium to capture some of these life events.

Congrats Dave! How do you use social media to share your stories with the world? Let us know!

Tags: citizenship, dave chen, Film, twitter

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