Life

What If Historical Figures Had Social Media?

by Eliza Castile

What if famous historical figures had social media? It's a fun question to ponder, but the creators of "Social Media Profiles Throughout History" did more than just think about it and move on like the rest of us. They created an entire series of profiles for figures like Anne Boylen, the Wright Brothers, and my personal favorite, Emmeline Pankhurst.

The series, created by British gadget company We Cost Less, answers all the questions you've wondered during history class, along with some you probably haven't thought about yet. My sister and I once spent two hours in the car designing Henry VIII's ultra-douchey Tinder profile — you can't tell me it wouldn't involve hundreds upon hundreds of unsolicited dick pics — but neither of us ever stopped to think about Guy Fawkes' secret anarchist Pinterest board, or the selfie Neil Armstrong would have been bound to share on Instagram. My roommate and I have a hard enough time agreeing on a filter that makes us both look cute in last Friday's selfies; I can imagine how stressful it would have been to pick a filter for the first selfie taken in space. Talk about pressure to look good. (Fortunately Instagram wasn't around by the time Buzz Aldrin took the real first space selfie in 1966.)

Other profiles include famous British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst's Facebook post about voting in the 1918 General Election after her tireless (and often violent) efforts to secure women the right to vote. May I also draw your attention to the appearance of her future estranged daughter, Sylvia, on Emmeline's newsfeed? I sense trouble ahead.

And we can't forget Wright brothers' Kickstarter page, which is a tantalizing $120 from their goal of $1000. According to the National Park Service website, Orville Wright claimed later in life that inventing the airplane really did cost around $1000, although that's close to $20,000 after adjusting for inflation.

You can check out the rest of the profiles at the We Cost Less blog. If they ever continue the series, I demand an Oscar Wilde Twitter account.

Images: Wikimedia Commons; courtesy of We Cost Less (3); Giphy