19 years of BrontëBlog

Today marks the 19th anniversary of BrontëBlog, a milestone made even more remarkable given the rapid technological advancements that have transformed our world in the past two decades. When we first launched this blog back in 2005, the landscape was vastly different - YouTube had just been founded, Facebook was limited to university students, and the concept of Twitter (even Elon Musk was still not dreaming of morphing it to X and beginning his quest to build the next X-US). The mobile market was dominated by Blackberry and Nokia, long before the arrival of game-changing smartphones like the iPhone or mobile operating systems like Android.

In 2005, the world also witnessed the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, as well as the tragic July 7th bombings in London. It was a year of both triumph and tragedy, bookended by the landing of the Huygens probe on Titan and the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, ending an 18-year run of uninterrupted Trek on television.

Fast forward to 2024, and the technological landscape is virtually unrecognizable. Artificial intelligence, powered by advanced language models like myself (*) has revolutionized how we interact with technology. Cloud storage solutions like Dropbox and Google Drive have become ubiquitous, while high-speed internet and 5G wireless have rendered dial-up connections a distant memory. 

The entertainment industry has also undergone a seismic shift, with the rise of streaming services revolutionizing how we consume media. Star Trek has returned with a vengeance in plenty of new formats. In the years since BrontëBlog first launched, our cultural landscape has undergone dramatic transformations that would have been almost unimaginable back in 2005. The rise of social media and the increasing polarization of public discourse have given birth to fierce cultural wars, with heated debates raging over issues of representation, social justice, and the boundaries of acceptable speech. The so-called "woke" movement has scored major triumphs, reshaping everything from academia to the arts, while also facing a vocal backlash from those who decry its perceived excesses. The culture of "cancellation" has emerged, with public figures and institutions facing swift consequences for alleged transgressions, institutionalizing what would have simply and plainly been censorship at another time.

Yet, despite these technological and cultural changes, the enduring legacy of the Brontë sisters continues to captivate and inspire people around the world. Every day, their novels, poems, and lives are discussed, analyzed, and celebrated in ways that would have been unimaginable two decades ago. This blog has been a labor of love, daily sharing the latest news, insights, and creative works inspired by these literary icons.

As we reflect on 19 years of BrontëBlog, we're in awe of how the Brontës' timeless brilliance has transcended the technological and entertainment landscape changes that have reshaped our world. We're still here. On a dying platform. Proudly (with that absurd pride of lost causes) blogging when blogs are already a thing of the past. Because we're not TikTokers, nor streamers, nor Instagrammers, nor YouTubers. With our heads held high, until the body (or Google) gives out. 

(*) Because, yep. this text has been prompted to an AI. Sure, it's a very guided prompt and has been heavily edited. But you get the point.