Selena Gomez Ditched the Internet and Her Life Has Greatly Improved

Selena Gomez has more than 140 million Instagram followers — and doesn’t even know her password.

The singer went on a digital detox months ago and hasn’t looked back, or should we say online, since. Perhaps she hasn’t yet heard her ex Justin Bieber is now engaged to Hailey Baldwin? 

“I’m not on the Internet,” she said in an interview with Elle. “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.” She added that she still has Peak, a “brain game.”

So why’d she quit?

Because “it’s not real to me,” she tells Elle. “As far as my personal life, someone sees me having a glass of wine? I could give two sh--s. I’m not trying to hide. That’s my life. I’m living it the way I want to live it. But it’s about making a conscious effort — if I can have a moment to be with my friends, I’ll take that time. So I don’t have any of it. I had to make that decision.”

Oh, and she also moved to Orange County, where she and a friend from Hillsong Church, Raquelle, are now roommates. “It’s been such a release. L.A.’s just gotten really claustrophobic for me. I can’t do any of the things I do here in L.A. It’s just impossible,” she says.

Selena has been open about suffering form mental health issues, so it’s a wise decision to cut the Internet noise form her life. According to Fast Company, checking our email and Twitter is “making us less productive, and more disconnected from our real lives.”

“Social media appears to promote narcissism, smartphones could be causing insomnia, and screens seem to be making our kids less empathetic,” they report.

There are even products and apps now that allow people to set boundaries with their technology and see how long they spend on each site or app.

FC claims that a digital detox can produce “better posture, deeper friendships” and causes people to look into people’s eyes, rather than downward into their screens.

“This opened up the front of their bodies, pushing back their shoulders and realigning the back of their head with the spine,” says the report. “This better eye contact also appeared to encourage people to connect with one another more deeply. They were able to relax into conversations and seemed more empathetic toward one another.”

They found the content of conversations changed when people were without technology. “In a connected world, when a general trivia question comes up, people immediately Google the answer, ending that particular line of questioning. However, without Google, people keep talking as they look for an answer, which often results in creative storytelling or hilarious guessing games that lead to new inside jokes.”

In addition, improved memory, remembering details, more efficient sleep, and significant positive changes to lifestyles all result when people unplug. 

“Some decided to make big changes in their career or relationships, while others decided to recommit to health and fitness. The lack of constant distraction appeared to free people’s minds to contemplate more important issues in their lives, and it also made them believe they had the willpower to sustain a transformation.”