As the fifth most followed person on Instagram, Selena Gomez has 165 million fans who eagerly await her every post. She’s taken periods of time away from the social media site in the past to focus on her mental health, but she’s back again in force now that her album Rare is about to drop on Jan. 10. However she plans to leave the ‘gram again once her promotional work for her new music is done.
Selena, 27, told The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 8 that, “I got back on [Instagram] because I was releasing music, but I just told my best friend Courtney [Lopez] yesterday, I’m going to have to take it off my phone again soon.” Sel has a tight-knit circle of girlfriends who aren’t famous, have their own jobs and “do their own thing” that keeps her connected “to a life offstage.” “They know I have an addictive personality, and it can be unhealthy,” Selena added, referring to Instagram.
In Sept. of 2018 Selena announced she was ditching the ‘gram for the time being to live life away from her phone. “Taking a social media break. Again,” she wrote. “As much as I am grateful for the voice that social media gives each of us, I am equally grateful to be able to step back and live my life present to the moment I have been given. Kindness and encouragement only for a bit! Just remember – negative comments can hurt anybody’s feelings. Obvi.” She didn’t return until Jan. 14, 2019.
Selena told Vogue in 2017 that, “As soon as I became the most followed person on Instagram, I sort of freaked out,” explaining another instance where she quit IG. “It had become so consuming to me. It’s what I woke up to and went to sleep to,” she continued. “I was an addict, and it felt like I was seeing things I didn’t want to see, like it was putting things in my head that I didn’t want to care about. I always end up feeling like sh*t when I look at Instagram. Which is why I’m kind of under the radar, ghosting it a bit.” She told the magazine at the time that she didn’t even have IG on her phone and that her assistant had her password and was in charge of all of her posts.
