What really struck me about Jenny Bradley’s
return is how much Weatherfield has changed since her last visit. And last
Wednesday’s episode – the vehicle for her reappearance – drove the point home faster
than a Ferrari that had just passed its MOT at Websters' Auto Centre.
For starters – before sharing a pudding – Kevin
and Jenny found each other through an online dating site, now an extremely
common way of meeting people but virtually (pardon the pun) unheard of twenty
years ago.
“Anyone can look good on t’internet”,
teased Tyrone but luckily for Kev, Jenny looks just like her profile picture – “which
is always a bonus!” Tyrone, however, looks nothing like the David Beckham pic on
his Tinder profile, or so went the pre-date banter in the Garage.
Elsewhere, Sean’s Social Media strategy to
promote his homemade biryani proved somewhat counter-productive:
“Don’t get me wrong – it was a very nice
biryani – but once I’d Tweeted it, Instagrammed it, done a Vine of it and
Snapchatted it – the blessed thing had gone cold!”
I only use one of those sites (Twitter – and
not enough) and so the zeitgeist buzzwords were largely lost on me. But it did make
me ponder and then chuckle about what my Grandparents would think of all the modern
references.
It’s a changing world – indeed the only constant
is change – and it’s fascinating to consider how different the world of
Weatherfield is now compared to how it was ten, twenty, thirty, forty and fifty
years ago.
If Jenny Bradley had fallen pregnant under
Rita’s roof, for example, I can’t imagine she would have announced, “I’m having
a baby LOL”.
Faye’s remark about texting the
truth to Anna was another reminder of this modern world we live in. In fact,
wasn’t it a Facebook rumour that first alerted Craig to the fact Faye could use
a friend?
Next week I reckon Nozzer will download Foursquare
onto his Tablet and start competing with Emily, Rita and Mary to become Mayor of
The Rovers! I’d love to see Sean give Norris a Social Media masterclass. Some digital
marketing could be great for business at The Kabin.
Modern technology has certainly changed the
way that I enjoy Coronation Street. Catch-up TV means I never miss an episode
and with the constant flow of official posts, memes, previews and tweets, I’d
know what was going on even if I did.
The advent of blogging and the Coronation
Street Blog (thank you Glenda) mean I also have somewhere to share my thoughts
about Corrie and a community of like-minded people from all over the world with whom I can discuss my favourite show (thank you everyone).
.
I actually watched last Wednesday’s episode on
my laptop while travelling to Manchester to meet my fellow Coronation Street
Bloggers for the very first time. That was last Friday and we had a cracking
day out.
We even met Corrie’s Digital Editor who
does a great job of managing the Coronation Street website and the various
social media platforms. I will share some memories of the day if I can tear
myself away from Instagramming my tea!
What do you think? Is it a better experience for us Corrie fans in this cyber age of constant
and instant information or do you feel that less was more? Feel free to Tweet,
Instagram, Vine and Snapchat your thoughts but for those of us less au fait
with social networking than Sean Tully, please also leave your comments here.
By Martin Leay
Twitter: @mpleay
All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License
11 comments:
I do believe my comment was deleted
I do believe my comment was deleted
Martin - cracking blog post!
David, no comments have been deleted... would you like to try again? Must have got lost in the social media ether.
Excellent! I'm not a social media obsessive, my Facebook and Twitter presence is there but I'm not a frequent poster. I keep up with friends and family on FB though. I try now and then to tweet through the Canadian corrie episodes but through the technology of *cough* seeing the UK episodes on the night they air, and with Canada only being a week behind, i tend to miss the Canadian broadcasts through the week. I may Instagram the occaisional photo as it makes sharing it really easy.
20 years ago.... no mobile phones or they were the size of shoes. Rudimentary websites. I think I was using a non-graphic browser at the time and email distributions lists were in their infancy but that's how I met Flaming Nora! (remember?) Chat rooms. Newsgroups.
Now we have blogs, podcasts and lots of places to share with the tv shows and hobbies we like! I like seeing references to social media on Corrie, especially now that they've apparently been given permission to use the real names instead of things like "FacePlace". Even Roy and Ken are booking holidays online and Norris is ordering for the Kabin using his tablet and watching the skies!
Great post , but Why is it that Nobody on the street owns an IPhone ?
I would imagine it's a branding issue. I've seen many of them use smartphones but they probably can't show the brand without Apple paying for sponsorship
Despite all the changes, Jenny Bradley herself has not changed much at all. That hair! Looks even better. Jenny must be mid forties but looks very youthful. Looking forward to the showdown with Rita.
I agree Ruth and also cant wait. Great blogging guys
How long before that anachronistic mailbox is gone from in front of Dev's shop?
I love when they used that line with Sean because that actually reflects people his age. If this were real life, people like Katy, Kylie, Eva, Sean, Luke, etc would spend more time sharing photos of their lives than doing anything else!
Actually, now that I think about it, rather than having another pregnancy storyline, they should have given one to Faye about cyber-bullying. With the news that teen pregnancy rates are lower than they have been in a while, that would have been a much more accurate representation.
I'm pretty active on Facebook but don't Tweet as much as I should. I've never got involved with Instagram or Vine and although I've heard of it, I don't have a clue about Snapchat!
I agree that cyber bullying would be a very good and important storyline. Emily may be into 'Breaking Bad' but I can't imagine she's down with Social Networking - so I bet she still uses that postbox to write to Spider :-)
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