Queen Elizabeth Joins YouTube Generation
Posted December 24, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Just days after Queen Elizabeth celebrated a remarkable milestone – becoming the oldest reigning monarch in U.K. history – the woman on the storied throne has extended the British Empire once again. This time, it’s into cyberspace.
The octogenarian ruler has now officially joined the YouTube generation by posting videos of herself and the Royal Family on the famed Internet site. The Royal Channel likely won’t have the impact of more infamous images that have appeared there in the past – like the Star Wars teen or the crazy kid singing the Numa Numa song – but it is the Queen and that’s enough to ensure the hits just keep on coming.
There are videos of the Queen Mother’s wedding in 1923, mini-documentaries highlighting the monarch’s ascension to the throne at a very young age, a look at a day in the life of the Prince of Wales, and some other fairly dry material that likely won’t excite anyone but avid royal watchers.
But there’s one entry that almost seems prescient and shows the Queen as something of a prognosticator. It’s her first ever Christmas address over British TV in 1957 and the words she spoke then seem to presage the Internet revolution that would follow half a century later.
“I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct,” she intoned 50 years ago. “That it is possible for you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us.”
Buckingham Palace reveals that at 81, the Queen has worked hard to keep up with modern technology, dictating emails (she never learned to type), using a cell phone and even listening to music on her own iPod – although the playlist has never been revealed.
“The Queen always keeps abreast with new ways of communicating with people,” a statement explains. “The Christmas message was podcast last year.”
And it will be again this year, along with one more recent innovation – it will also be sent out in high definition, a televised update that certainly seems fit for a Queen.
