Many of the royals have been very vocal about their feelings concerning social media and the Duchess of Edinburgh is the latest to share her thoughts. In a deeply personal essay, she's insisted that there are much better ways to find entertainment than "social media doom-scrolling", urging more people to visit some the UK's agricultural shows.
Sophie penned the piece for The Yorkshire Post as Patron of the Association of Show & Agricultural Organisations and started out by acknowledging a sad truth.
"In this age of technology where old and young have instant and endless entertainment at their fingertips, events such as agricultural shows may seem to face stiff competition," the Duchess declared.
"Yet the more than 600 shows that span our entire nation contribute hundreds of millions of pounds to our economy, provide more interactive, more visual and sensorial experience, more wholesome entertainment and more endorphin lifting moments than any social media doom-scrolling can ever offer," she added.
For her, the excitement of these local shows far outweighs the experience of scrolling endlessly through our social media feeds. Praising the shows for helping visitors "learn about our countryside, our food production and the vital role our farmers play in our everyday lives", Sophie described the shows as a "place where town can meet country".
True to form, Duchess Sophie also made a point of celebrating the hard work of the staff and volunteer stewards and expressed her belief that the UK's agricultural shows "should be described as ‘The Greatest Shows on Earth’".
Her essay highlights how much Duchess Sophie has in common with her brother-in-law, King Charles. From his days as the Prince of Wales and right up to present day, Charles has championed agriculture and farmers.
In 2016, he even declared rural Britain as "one of the greatest treasures of our nation" - something Sophie quite agrees with, it would seem. Another thing they appear to have in common is a disinterest in social media and mobile phones.
As the Duchess urges people to look for entertainment beyond their fingertips, it’s been reported many times that the King refuses to use a mobile phone, and staff members are reportedly required to turn their mobile phones off, unless they are in a job that requires them to use one.
While it’s not known if Sophie is quite as anti-phones as the monarch, she has previously shared that her children, Lady Louise Windsor and her brother James, Earl of Wessex aren’t that interested in social media.
Lady Louise just graduated from the University of St Andrews and is 22 but she quietly goes about her life, keeping out of the spotlight. Duchess Sophie said in 2021 that her "private" daughter "doesn't put anything out about herself" and doesn't have any public social media accounts out of choice.
"I wouldn't deny her going onto it. But she's not really that interested in it," the Duchess shared. "There's a few platforms that she talks to her friends on. But that's basically it."
