Prince Harry, Meghan Markle phoned this NC college student. What they discussed.
Sam Hiner was shocked to answer the phone recently and hear Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say hello.
Hiner is a 20-year-old rising junior at UNC Chapel Hill from Mooresville.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex called to thank him for helping lead NC Young People’s Alliance, a coalition of college students that works to elevate young people’s voices in politics.
The alliance got a $50,000 grant this week from the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund. Fourteen organizations give to the fund, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s The Archewell Foundation.
Hiner learned five minutes before the call that someone from the foundation was about to phone him, he told The Charlotte Observer on Friday. But Harry and Meghan?
“It came out of nowhere,” he said.
He’s accustomed to visiting members of the N.C. General Assembly and Congress, asking them to support legislation helping youth, he said.
But Harry and Meghan are another realm.
Trying to maintain composure
Hiner felt a bit nervous chatting with two of the most famous people in the world, but “I tried to maintain my composure,” he said.
He steadied his nerves by focusing on the topic of the call: his organization’s efforts in the General Assembly to address the deleterious effects of social media on youth mental health.
In April, Hiner spoke at a news conference called by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and youth advocates who want to ban large social media platforms from using children’s data in advertising and algorithmic recommendations, The News & Observer reported at the time.
Legislators developed House Bill 644, the “Social Media Algorithmic Control in IT Act,” in partnership with Hiner’s NC Young People’s Alliance. He not only co-founded the alliance but serves as its unpaid executive director.
“Platforms use the terrifying levels of data they’ve collected on us to show us an infinite stream of content that they know we’ll find engaging,” Hiner said in April. “And this keeps us unwittingly sucked into their apps, scrolling again and again for that next hit of dopamine.”
The bill remains “stuck in Appropriations,” Hiner said Friday.
Talking to Harry and Meghan
To Harry and Meghan, Hiner explained: “Social media was a major area that I think in many ways is (very) helpful to a lot of people,” according to a video of the conversation. “But at the same time (it) creates huge harms for many people, especially in terms of mental health.”
“I felt that I had to get involved, because young people need to be heard in order for politicians to take action,” he told the couple.
Harry is shown listening intently.
Several other youth leaders from across the nation appeared in the video being shocked by similar calls from Harry and Meghan.
“Thank you for doing everything that you do,” Harry told them. “Our kids especially are incredibly grateful.”
“They don’t know it yet,” Markle added with a laugh, before Harry repeated his wife’s words.
“But they will,” she said.
Friday, Hiner told the Observer how much he appreciated the couple’s support.
“I think it’s fantastic that people so influential have recognized this issue,” he said, referring to social media’s harmful effects on youth mental health.
This story was originally published August 4, 2023 at 5:10 PM.