Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-serving monarch in British History. During these next few days, the eyes of the world will be fixated on the United Kingdom and the commonwealth as the world celebrates her 70 years on the throne. Being dubbed by The Express as a “Zoom Monarch”, the 96-year-old has taken to technology well over the recent years. Since being Queen in June of 1953, Queen Elizabeth has overseen some of the biggest technological achievements in recent human history from the lunar moon landing to writing her first tweet. Brought to you by Forbes, here are a few reasons why Queen Elizabeth has become the most early-adopting ruler of all time.
1953 Coronation – World's first major televised event
From the very beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, Her Majesty recognized the importance of technology and the power of media to connect with her people. Despite Prime Minister Winston Churchill's protest, the Queen insisted that her coronation would take place on television. The TV broadcast was in black and white and went on to be watched by 20.4 million people. The Coronation captured the nation's interest and led to a rapid increase in TV ownership and a new era for technology around the world.
1976 – Royal Email
Years before email became a part of our everyday lives, Queen Elizabeth became the first Monarch to send an email during a visit to an army base. Email became an essential communication tool for the Royal Family decades before it saw mass adoption in the 1990s.
2010 – Social Royalty
In 2010 the British Monarchy joined the social media revolution by launching its first Flickr and Facebook accounts. A year later, the Monarch took up Instagram with the Queen now boasting millions of followers across all three platforms.
2014 – The Royal Tweet
The Queen marked the opening of a new exhibition on the Information Age at London’s Science Museum by sending her first Tweet. As many pundits pointed out at the time, the moment when the Queen appeared to tweet on an iPad was actually staged, as the metadata later revealed the tweet has been sent by an iPhone.