Steve Carell Mocks Social Media at Princeton Class Day

Comedian and actor Steve Carell of NBC’s The Office fame and star of films such as the 40-Year-Old Virgin and Dan in Real Life was the keynote speaker for the 2012 Princeton Class Day, reports the Huffington Post.

Carell focused most of his light-hearted speech on just how much differently humans interact nowadays—because changes in technology have changed the way people interact dramatically.

The forefront of these changes in human social interactions can be found on college campuses.

At one point in the speech, Carell told the audience to engage in an exercise where he asked them to look to their left and right.  Carell’s point was that no one looks each other in the eye anymore when they actually looked over.

Carell also made some hilarious points by saying off the wall things like “I Googled myself this morning.” He sarcastically pretended to have no knowledge or use for social media, and even pretended to have “unfriended” his mother from Facebook.

“You are young, and because of that you are wrong,” sarcastically scolded Carell.

Carell was lobbying for good old-fashioned “analog” interactions throughout his speech.  Carell made references to his own dating experiences, when asked girls out face-to-face.

Carell also mentioned that the changes have taken place since he got out of college.

“When I was in college we didn’t have cell phones, we had a dormitory landline.  We didn’t call home very much.  It was expensive and inconvenient.  These days the roads of communication are many, and varied.”

Carell summed up the differences between constant contact between parents of students in college today versus in his day simply: “When I was in college I would call my parents for three reasons: When I needed money, when I was thinking about changing my major, and when I got a person pregnant.”