"I'm not computer literate. I e-mail. I know how to get on the Web, but I haven't crossed over into the internet world. I'm old-fashioned, I guess"
About this Quote
Holmes is performing a kind of late-90s/early-2000s humility that now reads like a time capsule. The line turns on a deliberately funny contradiction: she e-mails, she uses the Web, but she claims she hasnt crossed into the internet world. That impossible boundary is the point. It signals that the internet, at that moment, wasnt just a toolset; it was an identity you either inhabited or didnt. Holmes positions herself as adjacent to the digital without being defined by it, which is a savvy move for an actress whose image depends on approachability.
The subtext is brand management disguised as self-deprecation. By calling herself not computer literate, she preemptively dodges the expectation that a young celebrity should be plugged in, online, and constantly available. Yet she carefully lists the basics (e-mail, Web) to avoid sounding out-of-touch. The phrase old-fashioned doesnt mean she uses a rotary phone; it means she wants to be read as grounded, not curated by screens.
Context matters: this is pre-social media celebrity, when the internet felt like a slightly sketchy alternate realm (chat rooms, fan sites, tabloids migrating online) rather than the default setting of public life. Her wording maps a cultural anxiety about crossing over: once youre in, youre searchable, copyable, and commentable. Holmes frames staying half-out as a virtue, an insistence on privacy and normalcy at the exact moment those were becoming harder to sell and even harder to keep.
The subtext is brand management disguised as self-deprecation. By calling herself not computer literate, she preemptively dodges the expectation that a young celebrity should be plugged in, online, and constantly available. Yet she carefully lists the basics (e-mail, Web) to avoid sounding out-of-touch. The phrase old-fashioned doesnt mean she uses a rotary phone; it means she wants to be read as grounded, not curated by screens.
Context matters: this is pre-social media celebrity, when the internet felt like a slightly sketchy alternate realm (chat rooms, fan sites, tabloids migrating online) rather than the default setting of public life. Her wording maps a cultural anxiety about crossing over: once youre in, youre searchable, copyable, and commentable. Holmes frames staying half-out as a virtue, an insistence on privacy and normalcy at the exact moment those were becoming harder to sell and even harder to keep.
Quote Details
| Topic | Internet |
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