Selfies and Selfishness

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a smartphone, must be in want of a date for the night on Tinder” as Jane Austen very much did not write. Austen remains a popular writer because of the quality of her prose, but also because she dealt with themes that still resonate today, such as the search for love.

The etiquette of courting a potential partner has changed over the two centuries since her death, but we are only just getting to grips with how much the sudden arrival of the internet age is affecting human relationships. Would Mr Darcy simply have swiped left to reject Elizabeth Bennet – or vice versa – ending their on-off courtship in a blink of an eye? Has the possibility of constant, instant interaction disrupted the natural pace at which we get to know one another? Has the chance of errors in communication been increased to the point where misunderstandings are now a serious problem? Are we becoming colder towards one another because of the lack of physical closeness?

Writing modern technology into classic romances just might help us understand such issues.