Handles, Hashtags, and Austen Social Media

This essay explores the role of social media—including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram—in the cultivation of Jane Austen's twenty-firstcentury digital afterlife. It focuses particularly on social media use by global fan communities, scholars, and institutions such as museums. It also makes a case for social media as an easily accessible information commons that provides a digital record of ongoing conversations about the author, her novels, and the people who enjoy them.