The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

I have recently come across ‘The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’ a very successful video blog taking the viewer through Austen’s classical novel, Pride and Prejudice. I’ve heard a lot of people say how great it is but I didn’t really check it out until I saw one of my favourite authors, Julia Quinn, keep posting about how she couldn’t stop watching them.

So I gave it a go, and I have to say for a modern adaptation it’s not bad. I’m coming to it very late – it started roughly a year ago. I’m only on episode three so very behind the times with it.

There are 95 short episodes – each under 5 minutes. It has a huge following and pages on all necessary social media: Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Just the amount of likes on the YouTube videos are a good indicator of it’s popularity.

Hank Green started the idea to vlog the famous book and created the project with Bernie Su. While the story is mainly told through the YouTube videos, it is also supported by vlogs from other characters and interaction through the different social media. It is scripted and the actors are professionally trained, volunteering their time to bring this classic novel to a new generation who may not even think to pick up the book.

Now, I am a massive fan of the book and I have seen other adaptations and there are plenty set in the modern era as well as reiterations of the period drama. One of the recent attempts was ITV’s Lost in Austen where we see Amanda Price go through a portal in her bathroom and enter the Austen world  causing all sorts of issues with her modern ways – handing out lip gloss, singing ‘Downtown’ and being caught smoking a cigarette. The mini-series received critical praise but struggled in the ratings. When I watched it a few years later I found it to be very light-hearted and a good effort, but not something that will always be viewed. A good adaptation for anyone to watch if they’re reading the book for school but it really shouldn’t be taken seriously.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is another light-hearted adaptation. From the formal language in the novel to the contemporary language we use today, it’s a bit odd in how it somehow works so well.

When you get quotes like this, it’s not hard to see why.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries are a lighthearted, frivolous and thoroughly enjoyable adaptation of the novel and now i’m off to watch more.

Relationship status: Single

I’ve recently become single and when I changed my Facebook relationship status I was a bit dumbfounded by the response.

I instantly had several people comment on it asking if I was okay, or a simple ‘awww’ and plenty of sad-faced smileys. I was perfectly fine. It was a mutual decision yet this made me feel like I should have been upset about the break-up.

I also noticed another thing – no one commented on my ex-boyfriend’s status apart from one mutual friend with a simple sad-face smiley and another friend of his give a non-committal comment.

I found that pretty odd.

Why should I need more comforting than a guy? Did my friends instantly assume I was the one who was dumped? It certainly didn’t happen that way. I know girls often talk more about feelings and I don’t doubt that he had his close friends around to ‘help’ him through it.

I hope I acted pretty responsibly by refusing to talk about it publicly on Facebook. Now to wait for the Facebook ads directed towards one more single person.

I got to thinking a bit more about this and realised that Facebook has ultimately changed the way we communicate. With my change of status as an example, only a few of my friends actually thought to text/ring me, instead putting their sympathies out for the world to see.

A lot of people talk about the negativity around Facebook and how it’s going downhill because of all it’s privacy issues (but that is a topic for another time) but the communication over Facebook can be awful. It can also be good, you may have some friends on the social media giant that you don’t see all the time so you catch up on Facebook and everything’s fine and dandy. But what about those friends who you never speak to?

This brings down communication skills. The addition of text-speak and acronyms such as Lol or dillygaf that circulate the internet don’t exactly give you much hope for the coming generations who are going to be getting onto these sites at younger and younger ages.

But social media does have a shelf life – just look at old sites like Bebo and MySpace. Once Facebook dies – what will be the next social media giant?