Contradictio in terminis
I don't know why I was so excited to read that Queen
Elizabeth II is on facebook! I think it was mainly
the idea of being able to poke her! Oh well, they
have that sorted out. You cannot poke the queen! But
you can like her all you want and read the Court
Circular and follow the entire royal family's
engagements on the interactive map.
There are already over 170,000 people who have 'liked' her, even though many seem to have joined only to discuss the validity of the monarchy in our times. Some have also expressed their disappointment in not finding pictures of Princess Diana in the albums. Oh well!
What I love about the queen is that she is a bit of a geek at heart. She is an early adopter of technology. She owns a Blackberry and an ipod, has accounts on everything from Flickr to Twitter, is a popular podcaster and has over 8 million video views on her YouTube channel!
But what took her so long to get on Facebook and why now?
Well actually the question to ask is why did Obama hold out on her about Facebook? If you consider the fact that Mr. President too uses the Blackberry, and that it was he who gifted her the ipod, and who is huge on these social networks, you would call him a trendsetter, wouldn't you?
"Modern Monarchy" isn't as much an oxymoron as we make it seem... in fact modernity and the monarchy are so closely intertwined, especially if you consider the fact that the Monarchy has not only embraced technology, but has also shaped it, and even shaped our history with it... Take for instance the Industrial revolution during Queen Victoria's time. The most important communication advancements happened during her reign -- first in the way of transportation systems like the railways and steam ships, and then communication systems like telegraph and telephones... and even visual media technologies like cameras and film projectors...
In that context, being on Facebook must come naturally to Queen Elizabeth II :) Did you know that she was among the first people to use email all the way back in the mid-70s?
I'll end here before this turns into a first-cause argument. But Yay to the queen :)
There are already over 170,000 people who have 'liked' her, even though many seem to have joined only to discuss the validity of the monarchy in our times. Some have also expressed their disappointment in not finding pictures of Princess Diana in the albums. Oh well!
What I love about the queen is that she is a bit of a geek at heart. She is an early adopter of technology. She owns a Blackberry and an ipod, has accounts on everything from Flickr to Twitter, is a popular podcaster and has over 8 million video views on her YouTube channel!
But what took her so long to get on Facebook and why now?
Well actually the question to ask is why did Obama hold out on her about Facebook? If you consider the fact that Mr. President too uses the Blackberry, and that it was he who gifted her the ipod, and who is huge on these social networks, you would call him a trendsetter, wouldn't you?
"Modern Monarchy" isn't as much an oxymoron as we make it seem... in fact modernity and the monarchy are so closely intertwined, especially if you consider the fact that the Monarchy has not only embraced technology, but has also shaped it, and even shaped our history with it... Take for instance the Industrial revolution during Queen Victoria's time. The most important communication advancements happened during her reign -- first in the way of transportation systems like the railways and steam ships, and then communication systems like telegraph and telephones... and even visual media technologies like cameras and film projectors...
In that context, being on Facebook must come naturally to Queen Elizabeth II :) Did you know that she was among the first people to use email all the way back in the mid-70s?
I'll end here before this turns into a first-cause argument. But Yay to the queen :)
