German filmmaker Werner Herzog has blasted social media as a forum for "stupidity" as he presented his new documentary about the internet at the Sundance Film Festival.
"What does impress you about 100,000 tweets, 100,000 times stupidities in 140 characters?" the director told reporters when asked about the importance of Twitter and other social media in today's society. "What is so phenomenal about it?" he asked. "I have never seen a single tweet that I found interesting at all."
He hoped Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, a 10-part essay that explores the birth of the internet and its repercussions, would spur people to re-examine their addiction to the internet and
"pay attention to what is going on. The internet is an event that science fiction writers had not foreseen. Flying cars and colonies in space — but nobody had the internet on the radar."
Herzog said he developed an aversion to social media and other forms of new technology and at one point did not switch on his mobile phone for a year.
"What scares me the most? Stupidity," he said, adding that a simple overview of comments on the internet would uncover "this massive, naked onslaught of stupidity".
He said he has endeavoured through the years to maintain his privacy.
"My social media is my kitchen table," he said. "My wife and I cook and we have four guests maximum because the table doesn't hold more than six."
AFP