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Emma Thompson blasts social media: 'I'd rather have root canal treatment' than join

Don't bother trying to send "Saving Mr. Banks" actress Emma Thompson a "like" on Facebook or a direct message on Twitter: In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the actress calls social media users a "lemming generation" and says she'd rather undergo dental surgery than join Twitter."I'd rather have root canal treatment for the rest of my life than join Twitter," the 55-year-old two-time Oscar winne
Emma Thompson
AFP-Getty Images file

Don't bother trying to send "Saving Mr. Banks" actress Emma Thompson a "like" on Facebook or a direct message on Twitter: In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the actress calls social media users a "lemming generation" and says she'd rather undergo dental surgery than join Twitter.

"I'd rather have root canal treatment for the rest of my life than join Twitter," the 55-year-old two-time Oscar winner said. "That's not my scene at all.... God knows what it's all doing to us. I hope that everyone does realize that we are all just one giant human experiment at the moment. We are just a great big bunch of little gerbils on wheels."

Using some dark humor, she suggested that in another 25 years, the entire social media generation "will just drop dead," leaving everyone to wonder what they had in common. "They were connected every day, 24-7, you know! And no one knew what it was going to do to them.... We invent stuff, we just fling it out there, we let anyone use it.... And then we will wonder why, at the age of 60, an entire generation chucks itself off a cliff like a bunch of lemmings. Actually, that's the most likely outcome, don't you think? It's like, 'I can't take this any more!' It's the lemming generation, I'm telling you."

Thompson, who won her Academy Awards for acting in "Howards End" and screenplay adaptation for "Sense and Sensibility," tends to forge her own path, not the expected Hollywood one. For example, she made headlines at the Golden Globes in January when she presented an award on stage while holding a martini in one hand and her shoes in the other.

And being anti-social media definitely puts her in a rarefied class. When the interviewer asked Thompson if she ever Googled her own name, Thompson shot back, "Putting my head in the toilet and flushing it repeatedly would be a more cleansing experience."

On the up side, the EmmaThompson.com domain should be available for a long time.

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