Prince Social Media Accounts Vanish, Pop Icon Now Invisible Except In Real World

Prince is no fan of social media. Never was, never will be. And he made that abundantly clear Tuesday when, just a year after making his first foray into the world of social media, where almost all contemporary celebrities maintain a direct connection to their fans, Prince deleted all of his social media accounts.

The iconic pop star, whose full name is Prince Rogers Nelson, made no announcement and has yet to issue any public statement about why his social media presence was suddenly reduced to nothing. But Prince seemed to make his feelings about the relatively new form of interactive media crystal clear when, in October, he held a three-hour Facebook chat with fans — but answered only one question during the entire Q&A session.

Almost every member of the current generation of music, film and sports celebrities not only maintains active communication with fans via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media, they actually consider it a necessity in the current overcrowded media market.

But Prince, hard as it may be to believe, comes from an older generation. Born in 1958, Prince is now 56 years old. That means such social media platforms as Facebook and Twitter, and even YouTube, did not become part of Prince’s life until he was already in his late 40s.

Proving that old habits die hard — and new ones do not form easily — Prince resisted joining any social media sites, at least not in any public way, until just last year. And as of November 25, 2014, apparently he has had enough.

Despite adopting the internet and digital technology early on, well in advance of many other artists and the music industry as a whole, Prince soon grew tired of the online and digital world, declaring the internet “completely over” in 2010, and saying that computers and other new technology “just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”

The disappearance of Prince from social media comes just three weeks after a debacle in Toronto, when he appeared to announce a “secret” concert via his Twitter account.

Hundreds of Prince fans descended on Toronto’s Massey Hall, and a drum kit with the enigmatic Prince logo was spotted possibly being transported to the venue. But Prince and his band never appeared and the concert promotion mega-firm LiveNation then admitted that no Prince concert would take place.

Prince’s band members later said the ambiguous Twitter posting had been misunderstood.

The disappearance of Prince from social media, however, did not cover the music streaming service Spotify, where the two latest Prince albums, both released in September, remain available.