I am going to be absolutely anachronistic today. I purposely make two eras converse. Two realities. Two spaces. You are warned! So goes my fancy; it features a woman. You know her, Emma Bovary. Born 165 years ago, in 1857 under the pen of Flaubert. And the social networks that emerged in 1997 with “six degrees”, the first social network created by Andrew Weinreich.
Six degrees will be closed in 2000 for lack of funding. However, you know the success of its descendants: LinkedIn launched in 1991, Facebook in 2004, You Tube, 2005, Twitter, 2006, WhatsApp, 2009, Instagram, 2010, Twitch, 2011, Discord 2015, Tik Tok 2016….
On one hand, Madame Bovary, one of the best-selling titles along with Les Misérables and Bel Ami (Folio Editions in France); one of the most read French classics abroad after The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry and The Stranger by Camus.
On the other, Social Networks: 4.70 billion users in the world, or 59% of the world’s population. 7 new users per second.
The decor of my poetic license is planted. The story can begin. (Finally !)
Madame Bovary is us.
But why link Madame Bovary and social networks? Flaubert’s legendary formula may ring a bell: “Madame Bovary is me“. I dare to say after him (like others for that matter) “Madame Bovary is us”. If you could be so kind as to pretend to accept this assertion for a short while, it would make my day!
OK. I’m going for it.
The world seems to be affected by yet another strange disease: “bovarysm”:
“A conceited or romantic conception of one’s own importance”, “The power to see oneself as different from what one is”, “An exaggerated, especially glamorized, estimation of oneself,” “A tendency towards escapist daydreaming in which the dreamer imagines himself or herself to be a hero or heroine in a romance, whilst ignoring the everyday realities of the situation”. You get the picture. Humans dream, fantasize their lives and their beings; and script them. Just like Emma Bovary does.
Do not mistaken the intent of this post.
I do not seek in the least to yield to social media bashing. I take an amused look at these famous romantic characters from literature whose lives and trajectories could have been modified by the use of social networks.
What would they have chosen to show of themselves? And would this have had an impact on their fate? (I may try the experiment with Anna Karenina, Gregor Samsa or Ramatoulaye Fall one day)…
But this is all about Emma here. With her own personality. The one that irritates us and touches us so much. So I ask you the question again. What would Emma have posted? (the novel depicts the life of Emma Bovary from the age of 18 to 27). Let’s find out.
Emma would have kept on reading!
“They were all love, lovers, sweethearts, persecuted ladies fainting in lonely pavilions, postilions killed at every stage, horses ridden to death on every page, sombre forests, heartaches, vows, sobs, tears and kisses, little skiffs by moonlight, nightingales in shady groves, “gentlemen” brave as lions, gentle as lambs, virtuous as no one ever was, always well dressed, and weeping like fountains. For six months, then, Emma, at fifteen years of age, made her hands dirty with books from old lending libraries.” (chapter 6, part 1)
We know Emma Bovary’s taste for reading; Charles, her husband and her mother-in-law try to keep her away from it. To hear them, this annoying habit would explain her depressive state (in fact Emma is dying of love for Léon). But Emma would not have traded her books for social networks.
Did you know :
- 81% of 8-25 years old in France read for leisure
- 58% of 20-25 years old read novels even if 47% of them read while doing something else 😊 (message, video)
- 59% have already listened to an audiobook or a podcast… With listening rates rising in the 8-19 years old segment
- Despite increasing weekly time on the internet (from 12 hours and 20 minutes in 2011 to 17 hours and 48 minutes in 2022), 8-25 years old read on average more than 6 years ago. (13 minutes more)
Emma would therefore have kept on reading her Walter Scott and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Would have probably subscribed to a podcast on love like “the heart on the table” by @VictoireTuaillon (600,000 listeners to each episode) or “Love Story”, by @AliceDeroide. Not to talk of her favourite Youtubers of course. Too many to list😊
“She took in “La Corbeille,” a lady’s journal, and the “Sylphe des Salons.” She devoured, without skipping a word, all the accounts of first nights, races, and soirees, took interest in the debut of a singer, in the opening of a new shop. She knew the latest fashions, the addresses of the best tailors, the days of the Bois and the Opera. In Eugene Sue she studied descriptions of furniture; she read Balzac and George Sand, seeking in them imaginary satisfaction for her own desires”. (Chapter 9, Part 1)
Cosmopolitan, Biba, Marie-Claire, Elle Decoration, Vogue would have negligently laid on her table. Not without a certain dandyism; she would have loved the paper format! She would have considered them a bit like her own vinyl records.
Emma would have chosen Instagram
Despite its 2.935 billion monthly active users worldwide (vs 40 million in France), Emma would probably have barred Facebook from her repertoire. At least until her 25 years old.
Why? Facebook is the least popular network for young women aged 16 to 24. 60% of Facebook users in France are actually over 35 and 38.9% over 45. A worldwide trend.
On the other hand, Instagram (1.2 billion users worldwide) would have been her big crush. Her true and only great love.
Did you know ?
- One of the most popular hashtags on Instagram? #love
- 29% of 18-24 years old use Instagram
- 30.8% of 25-34 years old use Instagram
- 10% of 45-54 years old use Instagram
You could object to me that:
- Emma lives in a rural region (Les Berteaux, Tostes, Yonville) while Instagram is an essentially urban and peri-urban network;
- Emma has a fairly basic level of education vs. 43% of Instagram users who have a university degree, and 37% some form of education;
No matter, I persist and I sign.
Instagram would have absolutely enchanted Emma Bovary. The aesthetic dimension of the application. The space allocated to the ideal representation of oneself. (Emma spends her time at the window, as a desire to look but also as the possibility of being looked at). Gratification by the like. The stories… and so on and so forth.
She would have mastered the codes of the genre. Art of lighting, science of good profile… Nothing would have been left to chance! With false modesty, she would have” friend zoned” or made hope all those who would have slipped into her DMs.
She might even have stood Charles, her husband. Would have installed a software to spy on Leon and Rodolphe, her lovers, avoided liking their photos. As for the sulphurous character of Lheureux, the clothes seller and artisan of the ruin of Emma? Gone! She would have “shopped” online and found great promotions instead.
“After leaving at the door his hat surrounded with crape, Lheureux put down a green bandbox on the table, and began by complaining to madame, with many civilities, that he should have remained till that day without gaining her confidence. A poor shop like his was not made to attract a “fashionable lady”; he emphasized the words; yet she had only to command, and he would undertake to provide her with anything she might wish, either in haberdashery or linen, millinery or fancy goods, for he went to town regularly four times a month. He was connected with the best houses”. (Chapter 5, Part II)
Would Emma have been an influencer? Hard to say with certainty. She would have had a definite influence, I imagine. Here is what the narrator says about her: The others even did not escape from her seduction. The chemist said—“She is a woman of great parts, who wouldn’t be misplaced in a sub-prefecture.” The housewives admired her economy, the patients her politeness, the poor her charity. But she was eaten up with desires, with rage, with hate ».
What would Emma Bovary have posted?
Fashion items, hairdressing styles, and without a doubt the famous fiacre where Leon and her spent a very very very long afternoon.
Her favourite beauty products including a cold cream, the secret of her soft skin. Images of Tostes or Rouen. Quotes from Walter Scott.
Stories of the famous ball at the Vaubyessard which crystallized all her desires, of her evening at the opera; she saw Donizetti’s Lucia De Lammermoor there.
Videos with tips for keeping nails as white as hers, eyelashes as long as hers, hair as silky… Romantic destinations, like Paris or Florence. Tormented landscapes à la Lamartine. And selfies of course (cigar in mouth, man’s hat screwed on his head).
What else?
What better than Instagram to send audios, photos, messages, videos to your lovers? Planning your getaways? No more indiscreet couriers and other compromising missives!
- And WhatsApp you may ask? I will tell you this. If 35% of French people use it, (2 billion in the world, 100 billion messages sent every day!), WhatsApp is only the 4th social network of 18-25 years old.
- And Snapchat do you retort? I had an interesting debate on this subject with a millennial: “No one uses Snapchat anymore”. (I spare you the disgusted facial expression). Yet Snapchat proves to be even more popular than before:
- It rallies 18% of young women aged 20 to 24 and 25% of 25-34 years old
- 90% of Snapchat users also use Instagram
Would the ephemeral and spectral nature of Snapchat have seduced unfaithful Emma? No trace of her double life and camouflage guaranteed😊 To be honest, I doubt it. A study by Médiamétrie (top French survey institute) reveals that 41% of Snapchat users value being themselves. To show their life as it is. This is at the antipodes of Emma’s hyper sophistication and self-staging!
As for Tik Tok (downloaded 3 billion times in 2021), it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference in Emma Bovary’s life. 38% of Tik Tok users in France are between 13 and 17 years old. Far too young for her! What do you think ?
Forget:
LinkedIn: Despite its 800 million users and its high penetration rate among 25-34 years old (60%), this network would definitely not have interested Emma. Indeed she was more concerned with feeling than producing. Emma Bovary would have lived on her love life!
Twitter: Why wouldn’t Emma have tweeted? (According to me, you can absolutely disagree). Its demanding format: 280 characters. Emma being the paragon of emotional inflation, twitter could not have contained her!
Did you know?
- The most followed Twitter account? Barak Obama’s
- 52% of tweets generated in 2021 come from Generation Z!
- 38.5% of Twitter users are between 25 and 34 years old
- Only 30% of Twitter users are women
In conclusion
Would all this social activity have prevented Emma from committing the irreparable? Saved Emma from herself? In 2022, France sadly has one of the highest suicide rates in Europe; this particularly concerns young girls (1 in 5). Yet 72% of the population uses social networks.
Is Madame Bovary, the drama of an idle bourgeoise, lost in her countryside? Too easy. This is what makes her story and this novel so topical. Emma Bovary is the inability to resolve reality. To come to terms with reality. The complexity of self-image. And identity. Behavioral disorders.
Would social networks have bettered or worsened the state of the young woman? We all know the questions raised by the impact of social networks on mental health. Just as we celebrate their incredibly creative, collective and even liberating dimension.
One thing is certain. Social networks, failing to divert Emma Bovary from herself, would have filled the void created by time. For a time. Until they would have bored her in turn. Because the story of Emma is the story of boredom that devours, relentlessly. That one can annihilate only by agreeing to look at oneself, to know oneself, to recognize oneself.
Hootsuite 2022
Mediamétrie 2022
#emmabovary #literatureandsocialmedia #bovarysm #madamebovaryisus #instagram #literatureandinstagram #2ruesaintgeorges
