Markle Offers Ominous Message About Social Media

Says it has become an addiction for many, and that she fled it for 'self-preservation'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 14, 2020 10:35 AM CDT
Markle: I Fled Social Media for 'Self-Preservation'
Meghan Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, leaves the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in London on March 9, 2020.   (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

Days after describing incessant trolling as "almost unsurvivable," Meghan Markle has revealed that she avoids social media altogether. "For my own self-preservation, I have not been on social media for a very long time," the Duchess of Sussex said Tuesday during a virtual appearance as part of Fortune's Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit. Markle said she'd closed the personal account she kept before her marriage, while the official Sussex Royal online account had been managed by a team. "So I don't know what's out there, and in many ways that's helpful for me." Still, she said she was "cautious of putting my family at risk," which is why "I try to be very clear in what I say and not get controversial."

And though she's not on social media, the 39-year-old has "a lot of concerns for people that have become obsessed with it." "It is so much a part of our daily culture for so many people that it's an addiction," Markle said, per Sky News, noting "people who are addicted to drugs are called users and people who are on social media are called users." In the case of social media, "there is something algorithmically that is in there that is creating this obsession that I think is very unhealthy," said Markle, who was addressing female leaders. She said it was important to "be conscious of what you're doing" online because "what it's doing to you as a human being will really have lasting effects." She added, "I don't think people have even started to scratch the surface on [that]." (More Meghan Markle stories.)

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