When I was in grad school I had a professor who couldn’t use a computer or type and I found it kind of fascinating. He would either hand write his notes for us or have his secretary transcribe them, which just seemed like a total waste of time. The guy was in his late 70s and that was the mid 90s though, not nearly 20 years later when we’re walking around with smart phones, iPads and little laptops that fit in our purses. (How I wish I had those things in college when they would have made such a difference.) So I’m surprised to hear Susan Sarandon, 65, admit that she can’t turn on a computer or use Google. My mom and dad are around her age and they’ve been online since dialup days. (Can you hear the sound in your head now of the modem connecting? I can but as I’ve already established I’m old.) All their friends are online and they’re chatting on Facebook and sharing photos of their grandkids. It just surprises when someone says that they can’t use a computer or the Internet, if I’m reading this right. Here’s what Sarandon said, she was at an event for the Trevor Project, an LGBT suicide and crisis prevention group:
Susan Sarandon isn’t bothered by bad reviews — or good ones, for that matter. She doesn’t read them at all, and abstains from Google. “I wouldn’t even know how to Google myself,” she told us at a Trevor Project gala at Chelsea Piers. “I don’t know how to touch a computer.” As far as critics of her work, the star takes an ostrich-like approach: “I don’t want to know,” she says. “Even stuff that’s really good shouldn’t get stuck in your head, because it’s not real.” Sarandon was honored at the benefit to fight teen suicide. When asked about the online bullying phenomenon, she replied, “Usually the people that have time to go online and sit there and be negative are such losers. But, of course, you can’t understand that when you’re a kid.”
[From The New York Post]
Sarandon had that young boyfriend for a long time (although we haven’t heard about him for a while), she’s into ping pong and she’s always been committed to liberal causes. I just assumed that she’s online like so many of the rest of us, and that’s where she gets her information. I’ll admit that sometimes I yearn for the time when I wasn’t connected all the time, when I wasn’t compelled to check my email and the news just one last time before I went to bed. But to be honest, I have a hard time remembering what that was like. My son will never know what that was like. Is that progress or is it scary? Is it a bold statement to say that you don’t know how to use a computer and you can’t be bothered? I think it is, and I admire it like I admire people who do incredible things like go on an inexpensive vacation around the world for months at a time. I know it’s not for me, but I can’t help wonder what it would be like, and if I would enjoy it.
Here Susan is at the Trevor Project event in a really fug dot print navy suit and wide-collar white shirt. Look at her shoes! Does that make me a loser for pointing out her bad outfit? What do I care, she’ll never read it. She’s also shown at the “That’s My Boy” premiere with her sons Miles Robbins and Jack Henry Robbins. Cute! (Except for her suit. She looks great otherwise though.)
Update: Susan probably isn’t as computer illiterate as she claims. She joined twitter this week and her account is verified and everything. Maybe someone is helping her with it.
Photo credit: WENN.com
I think it’s kind of good for her. But I like to know breaking news.
If she’d learned to turn on a computer, and how to Google, she might look-up a few things, like why Polanski is a wanted pedophile d-ck, and stop supporting him and being an all-over ignorant tw-t.
Sorry, but after I saw her name on that petition a few years back, I lost all respect for her.
I with you Maguita…this woman annoys me to no end…her and Sean Penn, and not just because they starred in Dead Man Wallking together! There both just smug jackass’s.
Agreed!
she supports him, really? disgusting. and disappointing.
What’s really disappointing are those Yucko the Clown shoes!
Yes Ladies, she was one of many legendary Hollywood women who had supported and signed a petition to pardon Polanski.
And BEFORE anyone thinks we should too, please, let me remind you of the facts:
Polanski had borrowed Jack Nicholson’s house at the time for a photo shoot of young ingenues.
The victim who was 13 years old at the time, was at first accompanied by her mother for the shoot, who then left her alone with Polanski. Gee, you think they struck a deal? Was she selling her daughter to a then 42 year-old man?
What was discovered later, Polanski had given drugs to the 13-year-old girl, had plied the 13-year-old girl with champagne, and had proceeded, for hours on end, to forcefully penetrate vaginally and anally, the 13-year-old girl.
To that, Polanski had freely admitted to it to the detectives on the case.
There are pictures of that little 13-year-old girl that were circulating during a time. She looked like today’s young 9-year-old girls, innocent, fresh, wearing only her little-girl big white panties.
Do you think she was his first?
Do you think she was his last?
And googling would have taken Susan to Wikepedia for an overview of the situation, and subsequently to the Smoking Gun where she could have read every little disturbing detail about her “hero” Roman Polanski. Including his own words. His own admission.
Holy Yuck. Excellent breakdown, but talk about vile. Terry Richardson and Roman Polanski should get together and do a photo shoot together. 😉
Thanks Mimi. It pisses me off when people disregard, or refuse to look up, what that monster had done to a 13-year-old girl.
And it really disappointed when the likes of Susan Sarandon signed the petition. A lot of women on that petition I used to admire. And a few men as well.
Thank you for posting this Maguita! I did not know this about Sarandon and now I have no respect for her. I was so upset and enraged by the Polanski case and the Hollywood petition. There was a great 7 min video rant on Youtube done by Jay Smooth about this. He writes about pop culture and hip hop for a lot of places including NPR. He is young, black and a feminist. His commentary was the most compassionate thing for the victim that I have ever seen. He also breaks down the details of the case and it is BRILLIANT. Just when you have lost all faith in people something like this comes along: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqSkZKKPfk8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
She just joined Twitta.
Thanks bns I’ll update with that.
you’re welcome cb!
Also, I’ve run into her multiple times at the SoHo Apple store. I don’t know if that makes her computer literate but I’d assume so…
Is she amazing in person?
Not really weird. My mom, 62 years old, doesn’t even know how to turn on the computer let alone knowing the word “google”. She refused to learn about it and prefer using the phone to communicate and reading the news from newspaper/magazine or TV. 😀
My mother didn’t know how to use a computer in her sixties either – but with a celeb it is a little hard to believe, so I’m not buying that she can’t use google – If her young fella was worth his salts he would have become her personal linux guru and taught her a thing or two 🙂
Off topic, but I HATE the way she dresses.
Heck my mom is 70 and she uses the computer everyday she loves Ebay and Amazon. I bet Susan has a Iphone.
yeah, my mom is in her 60s and thinks fb is called “My face”.
My mom calls it “spacebook.”
She also refers to a text as a ‘teckt’ and refuses to use it properly as a verb (texted, texting,etc).
She pretends not to know how to use the computer or dvr, but with her its mostly for attention. I’m betting Susan knows how and is using hyperbole.
that juxtaposed with the sweet 80ish year old woman I sat next to on the train this week. She had a smartphone with a touchscreen. She was very savvy with it.
I’m in my 50’s and have had my beloved computer for 10 years. My daughter is 30ish and just got her first computer this year. It felt really funny to be teaching HER how to use it.
Now cell phones? She has had one since her teens and makes fun of me because I can’t get the hang of using one. She has to show me every time how to make a call. The main reason I won’t have one is I hate talking on a telephone anyway and damned if I want one following me around.
And don’t even get me started on those 12 inch all-in-one remotes Forget about it!
Those remotes scare me jaxx haha
my boyfriend and I house sat for his friends. I couldn’t turn anything on, their system was to sophisticated for me haha.
I know exactly what you mean. But I feel so stupid when I can’t even change a tv channel! Technology is no longer my friend….
my first day at school was in 1993 and in third grade i had a teacher who didnt know how to handle a casette recorder. (for the people who think i speak about the times when jesus was born, no it was in the 80s and 90s)no kidding. i wonder how she would have dealt with smartphones.
my mom is ten years younger than susan sarandon and doesnt know anything about computers and still thinks about them as a waste of time. she orders something of amazon once in a while when my dad shows it to her. sms and emails are not personal enough for her (no handwriting), she doesnt like it.
i dont get it, i could understand it when it really was a nerd thing but nowadays its so easy and gives us so many oppurtunites to discover and learn stuff, i still love reading books but a book is so limited compared to links in an online article.
I don’t buy this for a second. I think it’s part of her whole “oh, I’m so above it all” thing.
That’s funny, tripmom, your comment wasn’t showing yet when I posted mine, but we’re using some of the exact same words 🙂 Anyway, ITA.
God but she is gorgeous – I love her so much.
Oh come on, she doesn’t mean that literally. It’s a sort of expression and I’ve heard many people her age use it. They think it makes them sound cute and interesting and ‘above it all’ if they say they can’t use a computer. SS is not just a movie actress. She’s noted for her support of political causes, contributed to dozens of documentary films and acted as a juror for film festivals. I’m not buying even for a second that she did all that without knowing how to use google. She knows how. She just prefers to say she doesn’t .
+1. Such a non story, especially since she is on twitter. This is just the way a lot of people of that age (my ma included)refer to the internet. Many know about it and use it. But they aren’t obsessed.
Is it really hard to believe that some people don’t know how to work a computer, celebrity or not some people life do not revolve around computers.
i think she’s full of it on this issue. it’s some attention-getting ploy, or something.
Instead of being on the computer, she’s probably reading a good book which is infinitely a much better way to spend your time.
I don’t believe for one hot minute what SS is claiming here. But, celebrities do tend to do that, don’t they? I think it was Winona Ryder who said the same kind of thing. And I’m calling bs. Really? They don’t order things online or get baby pictures in emails from friends or read Evites or anything? I can buy that certain celebrities don’t google their own names (if it were me I’d be terrified of reading bad stuff about myself) but they don’t use the internet for *anything*?
It’s pretty easy to turn on a computer. Just stroke it gently and say nice things.
You sound like you know how to press every button.
Whatever. It’s like most people who claim they don’t ever watch TV, they like the way it makes them seem, but it’s not really 100% true.
I knew a 98 year old woman who taught herself how to use email, facebook, all of it – so I never buy the age excuse.
IA. I’m guilty of saying I never watch TV, but what I mean is I don’t have shows I follow regularly any more.
Meh. I’m retiring early at age 45 in 3 years and I intend to never turn on a computer again after that.
I don’t admire this attitude in anyone. It’s a constipated view of the world. (And I always loved her.) Even though I also think computers have many harmful aspects to us as indviduals and as a society, I still think we each need to learn about them for ourselves, no matter how much we don’t want to do it.
As good as it is to have a life away from technology, this attitude is kind of damaging.
My aunt is the same age and refuses to understand “that mumbo jumbo,” to the point where she even asks me questions about her remote control for her TV. 63 isn’t ancient, and I think once you start acting older than you are, forget it. It’s like throwing in the towel. You’re never too old to learn! It’s healthy to have an interest in new things.
I dunno, my Mom is around her age and doesn’t know ANYTHING about computers, or care to, so I can buy it.
I’m 24 but there are certain things I don’t get like Twitter and Pinterest. I have a Twitter account but it’s empty–I got no followers and I don’t follow anybody’s tweets. And I refuse to join Pinterest, just another time sucker!
All I know is this: the first few years after I moved out, whenever my parents wanted to record a show, I had to go over to their house and set up the timer. (Insuring they would not have to be home at the time, and/or that they could watch something else that wasn’t being recorded.) And these are HIGHLY EDUCATED PEOPLE.
Now, my dad’s an absolute whiz at all things electronic and mom’s not too shabby herself. (Except texting and sending pix/video via phone. That concept escapes them.)
She gives off such an air of benevolence and trustworthiness and candor that despite her past nude scenes and political opinions, she could run for POTUS and win. She just looks like your friend or a good teacher.
She could be a SERIAL KILLER and people would still greet her on the street! Look at that baby smile in the first pix.