It may come as a surprise to her over 300 million Instagram followers, but Selena Gomez hasn’t used the app herself in over 4 years.
In a new interview with Good Morning America, the superstar spoke about her decision to step away form social media, and the internet itself, for 4 and a half years and what it’s done for her mental health.
“It has changed my life completely,” she said. “I am happier, I am more present, I connect more with people. I understand how powerful the internet is, and in so many ways it’s done the best things for the world. But for me, I get to my news that is actually important I get through people in my life.”
For now, Gomez curates her posts and has a team behind her accounts, she shared. She told GMA that “growing up in the spotlight” taught her a lot growing up, and that she “took the necessary steps” to avoid the spotlight at times.
Alongside her mother Mandy Teefey, and businesswoman Daniella Pierson, Gomez is launching Wondermind—a mental fitness company that offers free online resources, she explained to GMA. As Pierson put it, the platform seeks to “normalize talking about these mental illnesses that maybe people thought they knew about, but they actually manifest in different ways in different people.” Wondermind will offer content, tools and exercises, which will be “vetted by an expert committee of the world’s best psychiatrists, therapists and social workers.”
Gomez told InStyle earlier this year that Instagram used to alter her expectations of beauty and how she presented herself in public, and that the app eventually became her “whole world.”
“The older I got, the more I evolved and realized that I needed to take control of what I was feeling. I wanted to be able to look in the mirror and feel confident to be who I am,” she said. “Taking a break from social media was the best decision that I’ve ever made for my mental health.”
