Blog Post 1

Upon reading the first part of Northanger Abbey, chapter 4 stuck out to me because of how it reminds me of today’s society although it was written two-hundred years before our time. Specifically, Austen writes, “Compliments on good looks now passed; and, after observing how time had slipped away since they were last together, how little they had thought of meeting in Bath, and what a pleasure it was to see an old friend, they proceeded to make inquiries and give intelligence as to their families, sisters, and cousins, talking both together, far more ready to give than to receive information, and each hearing very little of what the other said. Mrs. Thorpe, however, had one great advantage as a talker, over Mrs. Allen…” (Austen 31). Here, Austen is explaining a conversation between Mrs. Thorpe and Mrs. Allen, former “schoolfellows,” after running in o each other in Bath. This is followed by Mrs. Thorpe explaining her seemingly perfect life to Mrs. Allen, however, at the end of the chapter we discover that Mrs. Thorpe is actually a widow “and not a very rich one” (Austen 33). I enjoyed this back and forth between the two women because it is very similar to society’s relationship with social media in today’s day and age. It is clear throughout the conversation between the two women that they are attempting to “one-up” each other, which Austen makes evident through the inclusion of the idea that neither woman paid much attention to the other’s words, yet both pretended to be interested in the other and would resume talking about their own life. While these women happened to be in the same place at the same time and did not plan their meeting on Facebook, their attempt to outdo the other mimics how Instagram and even Facebook work in our world. While we go on the apps and pretend to care about our followers’ lives by commenting nice things their pictures, just as the women did through spoken word, deep down most of us know we care more about our own pictures and how many comments or likes they are receiving. We post our best and most exciting pictures the majority of the time to make our lives seem riveting to our followers, just as Mrs. Thorpe and Mrs. Allen only revealed the best details of their lives, such as when Mrs. Thorpe explains how successful her children are. The conversation between the two women is almost eerily close to the dynamic of social media, which is expanded when Austen reveals that Mrs. Thorpe is actually a lower-class widow. This draws even more of a connection to social media because we often use platforms like Instagram to make our lives seem better than they actually are, which Mrs. Thorpe clearly does as well by leaving out the detail of her dead husband yet including ones that make her sound much richer and happier than she most likely is. While the conversation between the two women and the connections to the superficial aspect of social media make the women appear to be shallow, I actually believe that it makes the two characters more authentic and relatable as most of us do almost the exact same thing.