About today’s society

It is often heard that books are a reflection of the time we are living in. I love to read and reading a book written 50 years ago, 200 years ago or even 800 years before common era makes me think about how society has changed since my parents were kids, that it is amazing how humans consistently develop new techniques to improve the world we are living in and how stories written such a long time ago still enchants people these days.

I cannot help wondering how an author from the past would describe the society of today. It is already difficult to see the world from a perspective that is not your own and I would say that it is even harder to look at the society today wearing glasses from the past.

Jane Austen’s book Pride and Prejudice was originally titled First Impressions. The roman is about letting go of one’s pride in order to overcome prejudices and thereby be able to see past the first impression of a person. I think Jane Austen would find that also in today’s society, first impressions mean a great deal to people. I wonder what Jane Austen would think about the fact that humans today are so eager to spread our lives to others, and that others are so eager to indulge in lives that are not their own? How are we different from the gossiping and plotting ladies in Pride and Prejudice?

About today’s society:

1. Everyone needs to own a f***ing iPhone (including me).

2. Why do I care if you had lemon water in the morning, went to the gym, drank a green juice, worked efficiently with something creatively in front of your computer the whole day, went for a three-course dinner with your closest friends and ended a perfect evening together with your partner, family, pet or dust bunnies.

3. What matters is if you have the answer to this question: What is important to you? If it is something mentioned above, I hope these things have the same value without that Instagram filter. That you would still drink that green juice and enjoy the dinner with your friends even though no one else knew about it. My meaning is not to lecture anyone for creating an image of one’s self. It is merely to create consciousness to make sure that you and I are aware of the reasons we want others to see us in a certain way. According to Jane Austen, it is hard to get past a first impression.

To be honest, it feels kind of silly to write a text about how a person from the past would make sense of today’s world not mentioning that Donald Trump just was elected president, ignoring the climate change that is threatening the world and disregarding the wars going on around us. However, if I would look at these events from Jane Austen’s point of view, I have no idea what she would think about any of them. What she created was fiction. By electing Donald Trump as president, ignoring climate change or not being able to end wars, we are all creators of the reality. If Jane Austen was to write a new story about Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, letters would most certainly be changed into text messages, but the story line would still be about getting past the shallowness to find out what matters to us. There is not something dreadful about steering the direction in which other people portray us. We keep up our appearance for various kinds of reasons that are no one else’s business (even though we put it out there). We should also keep in mind what type of image we create as a whole, for the people who will try to understand the world from our point of view.

—By Linnea R., 22, Sweden ♦