The teaching plan of the practical lesson №1

Helen Morrison was sent to an asylum by the government because she placed a personal ad in the Manchester Weekly journal



A personal ad in the 1800's

A century later society had changed and placing a personal ad had become acknowledged as a reasonably normal way to get in touch with potential partners. Actually, personal ads were no longer merely used to find a husband or wife, but also to simply look for companionship. Soldiers fighting abroad during a war used personal ads to look for pen pals for instance. Despite the popularity, or because of, there also remained critics, who often worried about the morality of such ads (Cocks, 2009). It is said homosexual men and women used code words to place personal advertisements looking for likeminded people, but also for unhappily married people for whom divorce was impossible, the personal ads were a much desired way out, and of course, much like in online dating nowadays, there were people who posed as someone else, in an attempt to scam or rob people, or use them in other ways.

Looking for that special someone or companionship became a lot easier at the end of the 20th century with the invention and widespread adoption of the newest technological development: the internet.