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I'm waiting to leave someplace and don't want to do anything productive, so here's a thread of historical figures and how they would've played on social media:
1) Erasmus of Rotterdam. Europe's first bestselling author in the age of print was an inveterate self-promoter, so it stands to reason he would've been a) good at social media, and b) utterly insufferable. Expect a steady stream of sponsored posts.
2) Cicero. The writer, lawyer, and "statesman" would've been a prolific poster, churning through long captions on Instagram, lengthy threads on twitter, and constant reminders to check out his Medium blogs, where he explored a topic in much greater depth.
3) Martin Luther. Alongside all the important theological stuff, Luther was notable as a master of printed media, particularly the vicious and partisan pamphlet format. Definitely not a guy you'd want to argue with on Twitter, because he'd ruin you and turn his followers on you.
4) Henry VIII of England. Big-time Instagram guy, a lot of shirtless workout shots in his younger years, definitely thirsty in the DMs, and I think he'd appreciate the filters as he aged into a less attractive form. Side note: jousting would've looked great on video.
5) John Calvin. Hates social media but understands its necessity for spreading his message. Schedules his posts on various platforms and willingly serves as a comment-section moderator.
6) Marcus Aurelius. His feeds would be a mixture of work drudgery - pictures of scrolls and stacks of papyrus letters - and motivational phrases, mixed with occasional deep insights into the human condition. Replies to everybody, like a good emperor should.
7) Alexander Hamilton. Worth following for the constant stream of interesting information about a whole bunch of different things, but you'd have to put up with the narcissism and frequent blow-ups. The ultimate "just tweet through it" guy.
8) Mark Twain. He's my bet for the best historical figure on social media, because he was great at different written formats, loved lampooning the powerful, and his humor still lands now. Preferred weapon: the brief quote-tweet demolition of the dumbass of the day.
Time for me to go, so that's all I've got here.
