ShmoopTube

00:09

Ode on a Grecian Urn, a la Shmoop.

00:18

Are we in love with our technology? Are we whispering sweet nothings to our smart phones? [Angel shoots woman with heart arrows]

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Just like Keats did with his Grecian Urn?

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Well, the urn represented history. These days we get our history built right into our web browsers.

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It's that thing you delete right before your parents check your computer. [Boy deleting computer history and parents appear]

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Remember that haircut you posted three years ago? It's not going anywhere.

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Now imagine that hairdo painted on the side of an urn for hundreds of years.

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The story painted on the side of the urn was perfect. [Urn with painting of woman on the side]

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It was an idealized version of reality. TV has been doing this for years.

01:05

Now we're doing it ourselves.

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We're showing people the best parts and sometimes the worst parts [Person taking photo of fish]

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whenever we post online.

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We're building our own romanticized stories, making our own modern day urns. [Person logging into urnbook]

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Are there any modern-day Keats pondering our place? Keats wrote that eventually, though, the urn's

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beauty would fade. Then it would decay and break down, its story lost. [Urn smashes]

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Eventually, our phones and tablets would become obsolete, too. Even a trip to the Smart Bar won't save them.

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That once must-have gadget will be old news. [Phone with white wings]

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Its story, our stories, might be lost,

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too. Do we objectify, idealize our phones and tablets just like Keats did with his Grecian

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Urn? Will our stories last as long as those on the urn? Only time will tell. Shmoop amongst

02:12

yourselves.

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