- Selena Gomez has not been on the internet in four and a half years, she told “Good Morning America.”
- “I am happier, I am more present, I connect more with people,” she said.
- She said one way of coping with her mental health is deleting social media apps.
Selena Gomez says she’s stayed off the internet for the last four and a half years — and it’s been great for her mental health.
“It has changed my life completely. I am happier, I am more present, I connect more with people,” the singer-actress told “Good Morning America” in an interview on Monday.
“I understand how powerful the internet is, and in so many ways, it’s done the best things for the world. But for me, to get my news that is actually important I get through people in my life.”
“And everything else, I could care less, because it’s not my business to care about people’s other business,” she added.
She was speaking to promote Wondermind, a mental health platform that she helped create with her mother, Mandy Teefy, and her friend Daniella Pierson.
The 29-year-old has spoken candidly about her struggles with mental health over the years, first seeking treatment at a facility in 2014 after being diagnosed with lupus. Since then, she has sought help through therapy.
Another way she protects her mental health is by stepping away from social media, despite having 310 million followers on Instagram and 37.9 million followers on TikTok.
In 2019, she revealed that she had deleted Instagram on her phone — despite being the third-most followed celebrity on the platform at the time. Her account is kept on someone else’s phone, she said, and she only logs on when she wants to share something with her fans.
“I think it’s just become really unhealthy for young people, including myself, to spend all of their time fixating on all of these comments and letting this stuff in,” she said in an interview on “Live with Kelly and Ryan.”
Last October, Gomez told Women’s Wear Daily magazine that she has continued to keep social media apps away from her phone. “I do all of my posts through just texting my assistant and the caption that I want,” she told the outlet.
“I say that because that’s a huge, significant part of why I feel like I’ve been as healthy as I have been,” she continued. “I’m completely unaware of actually what’s going on in pop culture, and that makes me really happy. And maybe that doesn’t make everybody else happy, but for me, it’s really saved my life.”
