Meghan Markle Explained Why She Deleted Her Social Media Accounts

By Emily Dixon

Oct 14, 2020

jjohannesburg, south africa october 02 meghan, duchess of sussex visits the british high commissioners residence to attend an afternoon reception to celebrate the uk and south africa’s important business and investment relationship, looking ahead to the africa investment summit the uk will host in 2020 this is part of the duke and duchess of sussexs royal tour to south africa on october 02, 2019 in johannesburg, south africa photo by samir husseinwireimage

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Meghan Markle appeared at Fortune's Most Powerful Next Gen Summit on Tuesday, speaking via video chat.
She opened up about her decision to leave social media, and her fears concerning social media addiction.
"I’ve made a personal choice to not have any account, so I don’t know what’s out there, and in many ways that’s helpful for me," she said. "I have a lot of concerns for people that have become obsessed with it."

Meghan Markle spoke candidly at Fortune's Most Powerful Next Gen summit Tuesday, talking via video chat about leaving social media and her concerns about the addictive potential of online life. "For my own self-preservation, I have not been on social media for a very long time," she said, as People reports.

"I had a personal account years ago, which I closed down, and then we had one through the institution and our office that was in the U.K. that wasn’t managed by us—that was a whole team—and so I think that comes with the territory for the job you have," Meghan continued. "I’ve made a personal choice to not have any account, so I don’t know what’s out there, and in many ways that’s helpful for me."

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"I have a lot of concerns for people that have become obsessed with [social media]," the Duchess of Sussex shared. "And it is so much a part of our daily culture for so many people that it’s an addiction like many others. There are very few things in this world where you call the person who is engaging with it a user."

Meghan also spoke about being unable to use her voice as a senior member of the royal family (read more of her comments here.) "Your voice matters," she said. "You realize it more when you are not able to exercise it. Regardless of my experience over the last few years compared to anyone’s experience, you can’t take for granted the ability you have as a woman to be able to be heard, and now with the platform that people have on social media to actually have that voice heard for a larger audience, I think it's a huge responsibility."