Being the most-followed person on Instagram can’t be easy. With all that attention—some invited, some very much unwanted—you’re bound to want to take a vacation from it all once in a while. And that’s exactly what Selena Gomez is doing. On Monday (September 24), just two days after throwing a wardrobe giveaway on her Instagram Stories, the singer updated her most recent Instagram post to announce she’s taking a break from social media.
“Update: taking a social media break,” she wrote. “Again. 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.”
Previously, the caption just read, “Mood lol (I was looking at myself in the mirror -like an idiot!).”
The announcement comes just three days after she deleted her most-liked Instagram post without explanation, which showed her posing with a drink.
A post shared by Selena Gomez(@selenagomez) on Sep 23, 2018 at 4:37pm PDT
This isn’t the first time Gomez has commented on the role of social media in her life. In August she amended the caption of an album of happy-looking candids to remind fans that Instagram is a highly curated selection of moments from someone’s life. “I had something I’ve thought about for a while that I want to share,” she wrote in her update. “This page is my highlights and a few low lights. I post what I am willing to share with you guys. I hear people say all the time that they wish they had someone else’s life based on a few pictures…we all do it. But this is me sharing some happy moments with you guys. Trust me, my life isn’t always this filtered and flowery… We are all on our own journey.”
Then, in September she revealed that she’s far more removed from her social media than you’d expect. “I’m not on the Internet,” Gomez told Elle in her October cover story. “I haven’t been on the Internet in months. I don’t have my password for Instagram. I have no apps on my phone, no photo editing apps. I have Peak, a brain game.”
