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Cate Blanchett slams social media

By Shawn Price
Cate Blanchett slammed social media in a recent interview, calling it "schoolyard" but also saying it can "build community." Photo by David Silpa/UPI
Cate Blanchett slammed social media in a recent interview, calling it "schoolyard" but also saying it can "build community." Photo by David Silpa/UPI | License Photo

NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett slammed social media, calling it "schoolyard" in a recent interview.

Blanchett was promoting her two new films Carol and Truth in an interview with Yahoo! Style and said she avoids all social media and doesn't understand people's obsession with it, even if she thinks it's potentially a great tool.

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She said social media has allowed people to become self-absorbed and insecure.

"People constantly are taking pictures of ourselves to send them to people to see if they like me," she said. " 'Do they like me?' It's pathetic, the whole thing about people worrying about what other people are going to think."

Blanchett mocked the selfie culture and the desire to tell the world what we do.

"I just can't handle it," she said. "Of course you want people to go see the film that you make, of course you want them to enjoy them. But I'm not out there saying, 'Do they like the way I look?'... You have to say, 'This is what I'm doing right now.

"The like and the dislike is just totally primary schoolyard. I cannot for the life of me work out why adults are participating in that s--t."

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But Blanchett thinks the medium's potential is being squandered, too often devolving into destructive activity.

"I think it's a genuine way to build community," she said. "There's a subversive quality to the Internet, and I do think there's a genuine ability to connect. But the downside with social media is it divides people really quickly and sets up rivalry and jealousy and a sense of the life over there is better than the life over here."

But she added, "There is so much great stuff on social media, I don't want to be on a soap box about it."

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