Selena Gomez has opened up about why she deleted social media apps from her phone two years ago, amid attacks on her personal life. The songstress, who has been in the public eye since she was a pre-teen, sat down for a virtual discussion with former Surgeon General of the United States, Dr Vivek Murphy. In the video, which was shared to Selena’s Rare Beauty Instagram page on World Mental Health Day, the pair discussed “chronic loneliness and the healing power of human connection”.
“I’m very vocal about technology. I have not personally for two years had any social media on my phone – though I use the platform, I make sure I approve things I want to write – but I don’t look at it. It’s not on my phone,” Selena revealed, adding, “I believe heavily that there is something about social media and it’s technology being blamed for increases in loneliness and disconnection … I get pretty fired up about it.”
The “Lose You to Love Me” singer described herself as “anti social media” because of the way her personal life was discussed on the apps. “Every day I woke up and was like why am I doing this? If I constantly think I’m doing something wrong or they think I’m this sell out, they feel like I’m not authentic? Which is every part of my being. These words hurt and they add nothing to my life. The truth is, they’re lies. That was how I handled it by saying I’m going to step out. I noticed a change to the things with what I was posting. I was very on-trend with the whole ‘pretty stuff’ posts.”
Since removing social media apps from her phone, Selena has been able to spend more time with her family. “I feel like I’ve become normalized in this situation which isn’t normal. My job is a lot of travel, connecting with people, making people happy — and that makes me happy and it has been a struggle,” she explained. “I even posted on my Instagram where I was crying explaining to all the people that were following me that I missed them.”