When it comes to social media, most of us have... mixed feelings. Yes, apps like Instagram and TikTok are a great way of engaging with the world and keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances, but they can also be incredibly draining and have a negative effect on mental health.
With a starring role in Killing Eve, for which she won a BAFTA and an Emmy award, plus an acclaimed performance in the new Talking Heads lockdown monologues, Jodie Comer is killing it in her career right now.
However, this doesn't mean she's protected from the negative side of social media. Earlier this year, the 27-year-old actress deactivated her Twitter account, and she hasn't posted on her Instagram grid since May.
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Explaining her decision to embark on a bit of a social media fast, she told OK! magazine: "Until I get some self-control and manage not to go and seek out negative things on social media, I think it's best for me to take a little step back.
"Also now, in this time, I am trying to be a little bit conscious of what I use it for," she added. "It feels a bit wrong to me to be doing any sort of self-promotion at the moment, so I'm trying to be a little bit wary of that, while also being communicative and speaking to people."
During a previous interview on the Two Shot Podcast, Comer, who hails from Liverpool, revealed that she had received online abuse after speaking in a slightly less pronounced version of her hometown accent.
"I know all the people who comment on YouTube are aliens anyway, but I was speaking as myself [in an interview] and they were saying that I'm losing my accent," she recalled. "I'd adapted it a little bit because it's an American audience and a lot of the time people are like: 'What is she saying?'"
It's well known that women in the public eye bear the brunt when it comes to abuse from online trolls. A 2018 report by Amnesty International found that an abusive tweet is sent to a female journalist or politician every 30 seconds.
This relentless abuse is especially intense for Black Women, who are 84% more likely than white women to be mentioned in abusive or problematic tweets. In the buildup to the 2017 general election, it was found that nearly half of all abusive tweets sent to female MPs were directed at Labour's Diane Abbott, who in 1987 became the UK's first Black female MP.
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