If two actors are perfect for the part, the producer will give the role to the one who has more followers on social media. If one actor appears slightly better for the part, the producer will probably still give the part to the one who has more followers on social media. It is the world today. Your social media face is becoming more important that your actual face. It will take those of us born in an age when post cards were sent a while to get used to this… But for all the potential negatives of this brave new world, there are some immediate positives. For instance, if you don’t have a face – now you can have one!
The Knebworth House Archive is wonderful resource of historic artefacts and papers about the community of Knebworth and the people who have lived here over the centuries, that – thanks to the Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust – has part time archivists; but, until last month, no face. Now it has “Knebworth Archive @bulwerlyttonweb”, a ‘Twitter handle’ that you can ‘follow’; and through which it will publish, on a weekly basis, interesting discoveries made by these archivists; and through which, you, and the world, can now interact with them (they’re called Clare and Jill, by the way). And if the word ‘Twitter’ means nothing to you more than the happy garden melody of a summer evening, well, the Knebworth House Archive also now has a website – a face on your computer on which you can read its ‘Tweets’ – www.bulwerlytton.com – a face for the future, to tell of the past.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com