Why I Choose to Live in the 19th Century
October 9, 2011
I mainly hate the internet. Yeah, streaming music and self-diagnosing illnesses can be great (Thank You, Pandora and WebMD). There should be a term for the physical discomfort associated with being a Luddite. Oh! How my heart aches for the days of yore! I would go back to microfiche and dusty libraries in an instant if it meant the obliteration of Twitter.
(Okay, I got this picture from Wikipedia... Thank You, Wikipedia)
For the record, I do not, and probably never will, have a Twitter account. So whoever this “realjuliastiles” is, can suck a robotic dick. And stop emailing friends of mine pretending to be me. The real rub is when other blogs, which are gossip pages feigning some sort of authority, pick up stories that have no merit. The problem with the almighty internet is that there is no accountability.
Can a sister get some accountability?!
Again, not me, in case you care which you probably don’t so nevermind.
Oh my Lord..I just spit tea everywhere from laughing! Twitter schmitter…
What!! I have been duped! So begs the question, is this the real Julia Stiles?
I opened Facebook and Twitter accounts a couple of years ago (I was working on an online video software venture) and was diligent in actively participating. I met one or two interesting people. I acquired quite a few “friends” who were not actually friends in any way. I found myself becoming disinhibited, which is dangerous for me. I checked in a fair bit with young journalists and with the exception of one brilliant young newspaper editor down South I was horrified at their ethics and vision. I met a large group of Brits in the outer UK and was horrified at their thoroughly institutionalized anti-Semitism. Then the Zombies began and the Scrabble stopped. That was enough. I closed them down. I don’t want my computer to socialize me. I tried again with Google+. I was assaulted by a massive group of Scientific American reading politically correct to the point of madness crunchers out in the boonies. Bye bye. Oh paper, please come back, microfilm, paperbacks, newspapers, disconnected word processors…leave me alone. Somehow everybody I knew were able to show up at protest marches without tweeting. I knew the world was ending when I met a 33 year old psychiatrist who keeps a BlackBerry in front of her during sessions and reads texts while patients are talking. And she is an assistant professor at a highly regarded New York medical school. This is the end….
Huuh? There are some drawbacks to be sure, but I wouldn’t be alive today if it were not for medical science and the explosion of information. You can’t have it both ways. Sorry Julia. Otherwise we would be Haiti or some African nation.
Well, it’s too bad you won’t get on Twitter. Good way to keep short messages going with fans. A simple and fun way to communicate. But since the internet, I bet “fan mail” in the form of sent letters has probably gone close to zero, lol.
Dear Julia,
today I have found a new reason for continue to admiring you a little bit more. Even we have something in common! I don’t have and never will have a Twitter too (or any social network account), only a little semi-private blog to write when I want, without pressure.
i’m not sure if the 19th century is the best choice. well, for being without the internet and social media stuff it’s a good choice. but for other things like women rights or something like that it would be better to live now…
everything has both sides. good and bads. and sometimes the bads look better than the goods. that’s our fate.
The internet has its ups and downs but mainly it’s an micro image of the world we live in. Let’s have an exercise of imagination and pretend we were living in the 19th century. Besides not having the access to the facilities we have today like I don’t know, running water electricity and I think a lot of people didn’t even have the basis necessities and took a both maybe once a month or worse, they also didn’t have access to libraries, education was a luxury not many could afford, especially higher education. Also it would not have solved your problem as spreading rumours and identity theft were a lot easier back then. Anybody could go in a pub and say whatever… You can always take legal actions against that person…my 2 cents at least.
Great Julia! I love your way with words!!!
Hi Julia. Glad you’re back. I don’t like Twitter either & I still use a CD player because my iPhone doesn’t work. Thanks for taking the time to update even though you’re busy. I’m spending my long weekend doing college homework while watching Save The Last Dance, Mona Lisa Smile & 10 Things DVDs. Take care.
Like grandma always said: celebrity, like love, is a virus. Or was it Tom Waits? Either way, seems like digital media is but the latest syringe which can be used to heal or spread viruses. Must be a pain getting poked in the ass by others. I just came across your blog about a week ago, and have enjoyed the half dozen entries I’ve read.
Woooo. The “realjuliastiles” account got removed.
Twitter kicked my dog, stole my wife, drank my last beer and regularly leaves hair on the soap. Death to Twitter!
Hmm…so how do we know you are really Julia Stiles? Perhaps RealJuliaStiles is the real deal and you are an impostor. Enquiring minds want to know.
More seriously, I love the Internet, but agree that Twitter is an abomination. It represents the limit (thus far) of the tendency toward shallowness and brevity that much of the Internet promotes. It is at the opposite end of the spectrum to book-reading and serious thought, for which much of the Internet generation increasingly seems to lack the requisite powers of concentration.
The accountability issue is harder to render a verdict on. In important ways, the Internet has increased accountability. Politicians find it much harder to escape from the truth about their past statements and policy positions and hence in some ways they are more accountable than ever before. Mainstream media organizations that make mistakes have them pointed out with a speed and consistency that is unprecedented.
On the other side of the ledger, however, the Internet has provided an unfiltered platform for idiots, liars, racists, impostors, and recreational haters. This, sadly, is one of the downsides to a democratization of communication.
I don’t think it is particularly hard to figure out which information sources are generally reliable and which are not, and which claims require further checking or a withholding of judgement. However, just as some people will ready silly books or pamphlets, some will get their information from silly web sites. Teaching people to have some sense is a difficult and uncertain process.
Of course, when you find yourself impersonated and misrepresented, it must be galling. You have my sympathies for this latest incident.
Hi Julia,
but someone like you, smart but not selfish, who knows and cares about real problems on some social networks could help people, for charity and rights campaigns. I mean there are many who do it but in the end are always a “look at me, look at me” when they write about the rest. Great post. Bye.
the only way to stop this person to act as you, is ask to people. who are on twitter, to “report” her/him, twitter after checks and stops the account. Many actors, musicians, writers, artists have this problem. By the way whoever was from today is not more available on the social network.
I can understand you not like internet
some people have no lives, wonder how manu false me’s are there. students in the past set up myspace accounts. a couple were pretty cool, lots of stevie nicks stuff put on it, but i know that is not the point. id theft is real disturbing regardless of intent. thanks for setting the record straight, i have a twitter mainly to follow michelle branch, but hardly ever go on it. Alan Tobin
Yes indeed Julia….gone are the days of hanging out at the Metro Library….having the chance to flirt across a table…basking in the scent of old books filled with their secrets of even older knowledge…
Simply put. it is my opinion that twitter is for Twits…constantly releasing short burts of gossip or random text…like uncontrollable farts polluting the bandwith of our days and nights…
I do not and never will have a fart account..oops I mean a twitter account. Should I tell everyone?
i dont believe in twitter either // my american friends swear by it , believing it to be quicker than email or text – dont see the difference myself
you seem to be enjoying yourself on Dexter cant wait the series to start over here
go easy
I honestly don’t think that I have the same ability to focus on a book, a movie or a conversation as I did before the internet. No kidding.
And here I thought the world was coming to an end (because I thought you had flip-flopped on boycotting Twitter).
Then again, the Mets missed the playoffs – again. Shoulda known better. I guess we’re safe for another year!
Hello there,
Made me think of a movie a saw lately: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/
Kind regards from Belgium (486 days without government, and counting),
Petrus
“Thanks to God for making me an Atheist” (Ricky Gervais)
Interesting concept I normally would pass on comments. Your 19th Century blog thoughts do however make me think twice now before I would just go tell my thoughts to strangers. I started my Twitter and Facebook at my kids request and to keep an eye on them in the old sense. I do learn alot from there posts.
Don’t be concerned Miss Stiles nobody really pays attention to Twitter anyways they just keep twitting in the hopes that someone might notice them. Trust me you could write a suicide note on Twitter and no one would care.
Some of us still remember and enjoy books that you have to turn the pages physically to read.
With Regards,
Lawrence
Hi Julia, Good thinking. There are alot of things we can do without in this world. Think i’ll go shopping. lol Very glad ur back.
It is a fact that people learn more from paper books. A lot more. I think i read in an old Psychology Today that it was upwards of 30%! Books have a smell, (it’s ambrosia for nerds that mustiness!) they have various textures, and a comforting weight in your hands as you hold them (where one can always measure the progress they’ve made with not just a glance, but by blindly squeezing the left hand.) This, I believe, is because we encode all memory best through a combination of our senses,–a flickering screen only involves our eyes. And yet, i am still so awestruck and grateful for the lazy alters of Google and Wiki, hopeful of the possibilities for education, and thankful that without the internet, this very dialogue would not be possible. Still, i fear terribly a future where almost all face-to-face contact (and all of the non-verbal communication)is lost.
Without repeating too much of what “razvan” wrote above, i think of the ol’ “intra-net machine” as one of mankind’s greatest tools and even greater disappointments. Here we have access to astounding amounts of information,(it can fly right thru our homes and to our fingertips! Nearly magic!) libraries linked to libraries instantly all over the watery globe, and that linked to billions of people’s possible opinions…Such a heady and dizzying potential, no? HOWEVER, what have most made of it? A place to look at pornography, a tabloid they can participate in daily,hourly,–a terrible anonymity where anyone can pretend to be anything, and the worst kind of predators can hide, prowl, and build their sick webs within. It is, perhaps, as the best epic poetry once was, a kind of mirror held up to all our various societies. I fear Virgil, Dante, and Milton would weep!
Technology should be our dog, a companion that obeys our orders and reminds us of the importance of playing in the (actual, not virtual) sunshine. What is this thing called ‘Twitter’?
And, I have to echo John’s concern. If you’re not the real Julia, at least it’s been fun reading and letting us play in your sandbox.
Sorry, maybe I need to explain further. I don’t agree with putting your life online, never did, never will.
I am not even sure that this is your real page, but (supposedly) it is you. Though, I have never understood this issue.
You are you, so why do you need to meet others online? If you read our comments, sometimes we (as a people) can be harshly honest.
You seem to want to know others feelings, but why I am not sure? Someday, this emphasis on others commenting on famous people will be explained to me.
Until then, I will act as if I believe and say, that the people who steal your potential words from you are like raindrops from a rainbow.
We know a Rainbow is made up of water drops, but even a single raindrop wont make a rainbow. Its all of you.
Personal privacy and identity: I admit that ever since the common ushering of the mobile phone era privacy has been seeping from our grasp and the internet – although a library of knowledge – has created an open door policy for anything we or others wish to say on it for good or bad. Its an almost perminent burden our ancestors never witness and perhaps for the better.
BTW I love technology but social networking leaves me cold because people should still need mysteries to unravel when truely facing each other.
Heard an owl this morning at my train station…oh well…cross my fingers and hope for the best I guess.
I used to walk into a coffee house and people were actually communicating with one another at the same table. Last week, everyone was sitting isolated with a laptop or staring into an iphone. I started reading again, actually sitting in a chair..and with a book. (the kind where the pages are paper, you can feel it, smell it and turn the corner tab). Sometimes I hand write and illustrate little letters to friends and mail them, with a stamp. They are so much more appreciated and in truth, I feel more present and ‘awake’.
I don’t know about the 19th century, but I’d love to be a teenager back in the 80′s again…I remember the first CD I bought…thought it was great, but I still hung on to my old mix tapes. I don’t use Twitter, and am seriously thinking about ditching Facebook…everyone is so desperate for you to like them or their businesses…talk about needy! I miss the days when you could catch a smile from someone every now and then when you met on the street, or bus. How many real relationships are people missing because they have their nose in a cellphone screen or tuned out on itunes?
I like to think I was born at the right time..family was still important…friends would do anything for each other…people treated each other with respect…
We always heard our parents and grandparents say how much things have changed in their lives…to be honest, I’m scared to see where things will end up at the end of mine.
My morning stumbled across a soft-news piece that reminded me of this blog. Luddites may be inclined to overreact in one direction. This child’s parents are overreacting in another direction. For me, it’s interesting to see a young child figure out the difference between distinct media. As a Luddite-light Waldorf parent, I do hope this child is learning about the outdoors, too: http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2011/10/13/baby-can%e2%80%99t-get-magazine-to-work-like-ipad-video/
The internet…let me think. I like the news. I need the email for work. I am enrolled in online classes. I read a few discussion boards and that is it. Well…this blog as well. But I support this anti-Twitter banter. I fear no one would care about a thing I said. I also would feel obliged to be witty and that takes work.
I often wish I lived a few hundred years ago, but at the same time being in Afghanistan the past 6 months you can see first hand what it’s like to not have technology. I really don’t miss most of it, but I can tell you what I would probably go nuts without my IPod. Most of the other stuff I don’t care about, but it does help that I’ve also read about 8 books since I got here. I can see why you would be frustrated though with this persons actions. What the hell is twitter anyway?
very true
“It’s a world where you are judged by what you say and think. Not by what you look like. A world where curiosity and imagination equals power.” *sigh* If only…
at least now I can carry all the copies of Machiavelli, Brehms and Brontë with me without braking my back.
Julia I think what you’re experiencing is what is known as a PICNIC in geek speak. Sadly not a fun filled afternoon of sandwiches, sunshine and ants but a wonderful acronym for Problem In Chair Not In Computer. The problem is with the people not the internet, sadly the internet has just made it easier for people to do stuff like this. Before the internet it would have been poison pen letters and hate mail…
Just remember that impersonation is the sincerest form of flattery.
And then, if you don’t already know it, go watch this clip from Little Britain, I think you may appreciate it
[...] was apparently not amused, and in response, she took to her blog to tell the offending tweeter exactly what she thought about his or her endeavor: For the record, I [...]
Yes, William Blake, Turner, Edgar Poe, Victor Hugo ! I love it ! In this time, only people who have their face on the money was recognized in the street.
In France we have a story about that. The king Louis XVI who wanted to keep a low profile during the french revolution was identified because his big nose was engraved on all coins around the country. “C’est ballot!” isn’t it ?
In XIXth century, if you were not embodied in an image, you could live in the illusion of being someone else (or believe in something else)…
Anyway, romanticism may be over but there is still a lot of phantoms on the internet !
Nas palavras de Fernando Pessoa: ” Se eu vir aquela árvore como toda a gente a vê, não tenho nada a dizer sobre aquela árvore. Não vi aquela árvore.”
Fernando Pessoa was a great madman, perhaps even the best actor of all time (look him up) what my quote means literally in English is “If I see that tree the way everybody sees it, I have nothing to say about that tree. I did not see that tree.”
I think you have a lot of Pessoa in you.
I received this in an email today:
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that it’s difficult to determine whether or not they are genuine.”
Abraham Lincoln
Hello all, I’d like to claim that the internet have two faces and they are have the same importance:
1st : The Bad One :
= There is no punishment for all these bad subject & thoughts.
= There is no privacy at all.
= Wasting a of times from our life without any achievements.
2nd : The Good One :
= Torrents of information, news … which help a people like us to connecting with the whole world.
= Internet for a lot became the only way for communication.
= It’s now one of the giants elements in commerce field between countries.
————
Ahmed
Egypt
So that’s why you’re hardly here, J.–you’re too busy Twittering!!
Seriously, the real you comes out in your fierce engagement with words. Your voice cuts through the imitators–and it would do so even in the ridiculous, crypto-Haiku of Twit-ter.
I worry just a tiny bit about that “probably will never” qualifier…but you will tell us if you have a volte-face on this matter, yes?
…what a bunch of suck-ups on here. VIVA LA TWITTER! (Until I’m done with it, at which point I’ll say it’s crap.)
Of all the social networks I prefer Twitter, first of all none of my friends know I’ve got an account so I get my privacy. Then I follow news agencies and organisations which now turns twitter to my information portal. By checking out the threading topics makes me know what the world is talking about.
Books are nice but unless there are reprinted, information contained cannot be updated.
Hi Julia. I agree, no Twitter. When people find out that I do not do Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and have never, ever sent a text, they look at me like my face just melted off. Yet somehow I function. Oh, and my phone has no camera. Love your blog.
Hey, Julia
The music fan in you might want to check out this documentary I saw at the Vancouver Film Festival a couple of weeks ago. About the early women pioneers in Jazz. I’m sure they’ll show it at Tribeca or another film festival in your area soon. Here’s the link to the trailer:
http://www.thegirlsintheband.com/home/
Thought I was the only girl left in the world who collects books, misses Library dust, and loves telephones instead of text. Poetry also should only be in books and not e-books. We have taken so much away from our youth already, most young people do not even know how to hold a face to face conversation. Long live Shakespeare, Plath, and Tennyson!
I’d comment on this blog post but I think I’ve just become a luddite.
Andrew
Julia, I actually love that you chose a blog over Twitter. I have so much respect for you for that reason. Really. I find Twitter to be so annoying and filled with narcissists and assclowns. And frankly, I think there are quite a few celebrities that should be banned from it for their own good. I don’t want to name names, but I swear a few of them will come back from the dead just to tweet about their death, and how they died while tweeting. Thank you for writing something worthwhile. I enjoy your blog.
Sincerely,
Jen
Hey, there are two ways you can deal with the internet. You can ignore it and keep hating it or you can just learn to love it. Think of it like a jealous friend; considered harmful in general but proves to be the only person who can help you with some specific problems
“Let us begin by clearing up the old confusion between the man who loves learning and the man who loves reading, and point out that there is no… – MORE Let us begin by clearing up the old confusion between the man who loves learning and the man who loves reading, and point out that there is no connection whatever between the two. A learned man is a sedentary, concentrated solitary enthusiast, who searches through books to discover some particular grain of truth upon which he has set his heart. If the passion for reading conquers him, his gains dwindle and vanish between his
fingers. A reader, on the other hand, must check the desire for learning at the outset; if knowledge sticks to him well and good, but to go in pursuit of it, to read on a system, to become a specialist or an authority, is very apt to kill what it suits us to consider the more humane passion for pure and disinterested reading.”
Virgina Woolf
Have a safe vetrans day julia.
I had no idea you dated Scarlett Johansson! Is she a good kisser? “Enquiring” minds wanna know!
Last paragraph of this article. And I quote, “Johansson first married to Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds on September 27, 2008 in Tofino, British Columbia after dating for more than a year. The couple started the family in a $2.8 million home near Los Angeles, California. The pair announced split on December 14, 2010 and divorced officially on July 1, 2011. Later, she was romantically linked with Julia Stiles, Larisa Oleynik, Devon Aoki and Evan Rachel Wood.”
http://www.mjbstar.com/celebrities/2011/11/10/scarlett-johansson-joseph-gordon-levitt-relationship-going-strong/
The Internet. The gift that keeps on giving!
PS. Did you know there are 17 Elly Higginbottoms on Facebook? Talk about falsely impersonating!
If I want to find the title of a song, I only have to put a few words of the song and I can see all information of the song and the band.
If I want to promote my career of musician, I only have to put a video in youtube, create a profile in facebook or myspace and if what I do is talented in a few months or even days I can suceed, without the approval of a subjective discographic.
Internet is objectivity, is freedom, is anarchy. All people is equal in front of a computer, the power and the money don’t meen nothing when you are typing in a blog.
Pdta: Ok, ok. I don’t like Twitter either. But Internet…ohh, no puedo imaginarme sin ella, a pesar de los desgraciados que le dan mal nombre. No escribes nada mal, me gusta!!
Luddites Unite!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/us/ann-patchett-bucks-bookstore-tide-opening-her-own.html
I add a comment because I just read an interesting article about Twitter like a democratic way (or not):
http://theconversation.edu.au/did-twitter-censor-occupy-wall-street-3822
Great post Julia!
That’s a great artcile, Tony. Too bad it isn’t ‘trending’ in non-academic mediaspace.
The author is right. If agents for social change really want to get their message out in an effective (read: unfiltered) way, they will have to consider developing their social media applications.
After all, nearly all social media are really designed to find out what interests YOU so they can facilitate some commercial outfit SELLING something to you.
I’ve always felt that twitter and other social networking sites are stupid. They can be addictive and huge time wasters just like videogames. It’s just one more way to put up walls between yourself and the rest of the world
Okay. I found one really good reason to love the Internet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmfeKUNDDYs
Don’t hate the technology, hate the people who misuse it. I also don’t have a twitter account and not even a homepage, although I’ve studied computer science and know how to use computer on a professional level. I had to get a facebook account to keep in touch with some friends while travelling.