Saoirse Ronan refuses to join social media because she hates the idea of sharing details of her personal life with "people I don't know"

She told Elle magazine: "I like that people don't know my business. I just fundamentally believe that they don't need to. I'm an actor, and the side of me that's out there that I want people to see is in the work.

"I also think I was very lucky that when I was coming up, it was right before social media really took off. I can see, with the slightly younger generation, how they've felt the pressure to have that presence."

Saoirse went on to reveal she has lost roles because she doesn't have a social media presence and she worries young stars now have to share their lives online or risk failure in the acting business.

She added: "I've been in audition rooms where I haven't gotten a role because I didn't have enough Twitter followers or whatever.

"And in the end, I was like, 'Okay, well, I don't want to be in a movie like that, anyway'. But when you're coming up and nobody knows who you are, and you're trying to make a name for yourself in the world that we're in now, I can understand how you can give that too much importance. I was lucky that I just got past that."

Saoirse concluded: "It doesn't make sense to me why I would share my personal life with people I don't know."

The 30-year-old actress was thrust into the spotlight at the age of 12 after landing her breakout role in 2007 war drama 'Atonement' which won her an Oscar nomination, and Saoirse previously admitted she worried would never have proper friends or a partner after growing up in the movie industry.

However, she has since married fellow actor Jack Lowden and found a "beautiful network" of pals.

She told USA Today: "My life has become so much more than just work. For a long time, that's all I did; that's how I met people and made sense of the world."

She added: "[Now] I feel like I'm part of a group, which I never thought I would have. I used to think, 'You'll never have friends. You'll never have a partner.' I was so in my own world, in a lot of ways.

"So now, to feel like I've got a very rich personal and social life - it's so precious to me."