Following a day of generating fan buzz and grabbing headlines for her comments on TikTok about fan-speculated drama surrounding her, Kylie Jenner, and Hailey Bieber, Selena Gomez quit the platform. Gomez went live on TikTok to discuss her decision before disabling her account.
Selena Gomez announces she’s taking a break from social media:
— Pop Base (@PopBase) February 23, 2023
“I’m gonna be taking a second from social media cause this is a little silly and I’m 30, I’m too old for this.” pic.twitter.com/LxWbSpxThj
She said, “I’m very happy, I’m so blessed, I have the best friends, the best fans in the whole world, and I just couldn’t be happier. And I’m good. I love the way I am. I don’t care, I’m big, I’m not—I don’t care. I love who I am. And yeah, I’m gonna be taking a second from social media, because this is a little silly. And I’m 30, I’m too old for this, so. But I love you guys so much! And I will see you guys sooner than later, I just... I’m just gonna just take a break from everything.”
Gomez’s video comes after her comment defending Taylor Swift on a resurfaced TikTok video of Hailey Bieber seemingly gagging at Taylor’s name. In response, the ‘Calm Down’ hitmaker wrote “So sorry my best friend is and continues to be one of the best in the game.”
Selena Gomez shows support for Taylor Swift under a resurfaced video of Hailey Bieber gagging after Taylor is mentioned. pic.twitter.com/uMl7VsgVq3
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) February 23, 2023
The social break also comes after Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber were accused of bullying Gomez over her accidentally-over-laminated eyebrows. The Only Murders In The Building star actually hopped on TikTok to back up Kylie Jenner’s denial that she and Hailey were bullying Sel, responding to this comment from Kylie: “this is reaching. no shade towards selena ever and I didn’t see her eyebrow posts! u guys are making something out of nothing. this is silly.”
Gomez commented, “Agreed @kyliejenner It’s all unnecessary. I’m a fan of Kylie!”
While the Rare Beauty mogul has been more active on Instagram lately, she recently revealed that she actually only has TikTok on her phone. The singer removed Instagram years ago and has her assistant post content for her to her page.
Of why she decided to personally step back from most social media platforms, Gomez said, “I never got the chance to go to an actual high school. The world was my high school for the longest time, and I started getting inundated with information that I didn’t want. I went through a hard time in a breakup and I didn’t want to see any of the [feedback]—not necessarily about the relationship, but the opinions of me versus [someone] else. There’d be thousands of really nice comments, but my mind goes straight to the mean one.”
“People can call me ugly or stupid and I’m like, whatever. But these people get detailed,” she continued. “They write paragraphs that are so specific and mean. I would constantly be crying. I constantly had anxiety…I couldn’t do it anymore. It was a waste of my time.”
“The only thing I have on my phone is TikTok because I find it to be a little less hostile,” she said. “There are wonderful things about social media—connecting with fans, seeing how happy and excited they are and their stories. But usually that’s filtered through [for me now]. I created a system. Everything I do I send to my assistant who posts them. As far as comments, my team will put together a few things that are encouraging.”
Amid all this back and forth and Mean Girls-esque drama (read, the media pitting women in power against each other), yesterday, Gomez surpassed Jenner to become the most followed woman on Instagram yet again.
