The death of Queen Elizabeth II of England It will surely be the perfect opportunity for history to do its job and show us in all this transit from 1926 to 2022 how society and the world have changed. From passengers of the 20th century to connected citizens of the 21st century, something that for the British monarch was not something trivial.
Because his life as a royal highness spanned from his first radio message (1947), his first televised Christmas broadcast (1957) and his first email (1976).
In fact, his first email is more than anecdotal, since it marked the beginning of the pre-internet era with its predecessor Arpanet.
This is how Wired actually tells it:
“The date was March 26, 1976, and the arpanet, the computer network that eventually became the Internet, had just arrived at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, a telecommunications research center in Malvern, England. The Queen was on hand to christen the connection, and in the process, she became one of the first heads of state to send an email. It was Peter Kirstein who set up his email account, choosing the username “HME2.” That is Her Majesty, Elizabeth II. “All she had to do was press a couple of buttons,” she recalls, “and her message was sent.”
But the arrival of the new technology of cell phones, computers, iPads, streaming, also reached the Royal Palace. In fact, it is said that his grandchildren William and Harry would have given him an iPad, and that a fan sent him a gold Nintendo Wii.
And in his role as monarch, he had to jump on this bandwagon fast, for example with the use of social networks:
For example, he launched his first tweet on October 24, 2014:
It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. ElizabethR.
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) October 24, 2014
During the COVID-19 crisis, Isabel II had to communicate through Zoom and video call programs. Here we see her in the following video sending a message in days of coronavirus.
His latest technological prowess will surely be his path to immortality, as on June 6, 2022, he was present at the parade to celebrate his Platinum Jubilee, marking his 70 years on the British throne. But she did it in the form of a hologram.
As reported by the British newspaper The Guardian, the hologram of the queen during her coronation in 1953 led the London parade waving from a 260-year-old carriage. A procession that followed a route similar to the one made by the monarch, who is now 96 years old, on the day of her coronation and intended to remember the different periods of her reign.
This September 8, as expected, the people say goodbye to the longest-serving monarch on the English throne, but through the social networks that gave the announcement of his death. An end of history that was marked by hashtags, photos on Instagram and videos on YouTube.
Publisher Recommendations
es.digitaltrends.com