Zooey Deschanel: 'Social media hiatus made me more reflective about world tragedies'

Actress Zooey Deschanel took a break from social media to reflect on how to handle all the tragedies in society.

The New Girl star went on a months-long hiatus from social media last year (15), explaining she wanted to step back and be more thoughtful of how she responded to everything she was seeing on the news.

"A lot of very strange, tragic, sad, unfathomable things have happened... to the point where you're like, no amount of thoughts and prayers can make this better," she tells Cosmopolitan magazine. "It makes me more reflective. I took a social-media break because everyone feels the need to comment on everything immediately. Sometimes, we need to be thoughtful about what we say."

And while she admits that she's not always proud of the comments she has made and read online in recent years, she inherently believes people mean well.

"When I was growing up, I always thought the world would get less bigoted, less racist, and people would be more open-minded," she says. "For a while, I thought that was happening, but it's been very scary the last few years. I really, truly believe that people are basically good in nature, and, in the end, that prevails."

During her time away from social media, the 36-year-old also welcomed daughter Elsie Otter in July (16), and she admits she was grateful to be able to take off from filming her hit TV show New Girl to spend time with her newborn daughter.

"We live in a country that doesn't give paid maternity leave," she continues. "I felt very lucky to have an employer who was understanding and let me have, like, four months with my baby before I had to go back to work."