Selena Gomez has a mental health website called Wondermind. She started it with her mom, Mandy Teefy, and Daniella Pierson, who founded the newsletters The Newsette and The Weekly Wrap. They are going to put out a companion podcast as well. The site looks nice, but there’s not much there. This isn’t my area of expertise so I don’t know if it’s because it just launched or you’re just supposed to sign up for their newsletter on their site. Newsletters are Daniella’s thing, so I imagine that’s the bulk of Wondermind’s model. Selena is very much invested in mental health, as we know. She’s been working on her own for years and has been quite open about it. I love that she’s jumping into this area with both feet. Selena told Good Morning America that one of her tricks to better mental health was to stay off social media. That despite having over 300 million followers, Selena has not been on ‘the Internet’ for over four years. And it’s completely changed her life for the better.
Selena Gomez, 29, spoke candidly about mental health in an interview with Good Morning America on April 4. The Disney Channel alum was joined by her mom Mandy Teefy and businesswoman Daniella Pierson to promote the trio’s new mental health multimedia company, Wondermind. During the interview, Selena revealed that she doesn’t use the internet, despite having a massive social media following.
“I haven’t been on the internet in four and a half years,” Selena explained to GMA‘s JuJu Chang. “It has changed my life completely. I am happier, I am more present. I connect more with people. It makes me feel normal.”
Selena has been very open about her mental health struggles over the years, and so she’s launching Wondermind to help other people struggling. “Growing up in the spotlight has definitely taught me so much,” she said. “I can’t believe that I am where I am mentally just because how I took the necessary steps in order to kind of remove myself from that. Because it’s just not normal.”
Selena has been saying some version of this for years. She told us in 2018 she was saying off the internet because it “didn’t feel real“ to her. I don’t totally get how she does it. Because she has both a Twitter and an Instagram account and she’s given interviews through at least one of them. I assume someone else runs them for her, but does that mean she doesn’t touch them? I’m curious what these kinds of admissions do to a fanbase and if fans feel less invested when they know a celebrity isn’t seeing their comments and likes.
I don’t doubt that Selena is much happier. I know removing myself from Facebook made a major improvement in my life. Instagram has been fairly positive for me but I’m starting to think I need to divorce Twitter. We definitely need a trial separation. I enjoy posting there, but I spend too much time reading it and I’m sadder because of it. So I ask sincerely about what Selena’s habits are, not to call her out. I’d like to maintain a social media presence but mentally, I don’t know if I can, and Selena seems to have figured it out. I hope she talks more about it on Wondermind or the podcast. Because I really do think Selena has grown happier and healthier. I’m pleased she chosen to share how she did that.
Photo credit: Avalon Red and Instagram
I quite Facebook in the summer of 2016, and I’ve never regret it.
(Well, almost never. I’m still a very nosey Elder Millennial who must rely on friends and family to stalk around for me from time to time.)
I agree about twitter. I keep getting notifications about posts from people I don’t know; but they’re almost like vaguebooking because I have no context. I have some idea of the topic (let’s say abuse in the church) but can’t figure out what specifically is going on. So then I’m wasting time trying to understand without going down a rabbit hole. And all the tweets/reply tweets just make me sad because they’re either hateful or commiserating with the original tweet. It’s become not a good place for me to be.
Try blocking those people you get notifications from. It helps a lot. Twitter is my favorite platform. I never tweet or even retweet, but I do like to know what people are talking about. I avoid the threads on politics and mostly just look for pop culture tweets. People are so funny and clever.
Love Twitter but I carefully curate, block lots which takes only seconds.
So. She has been offline for four years. Yet, she has a website, a Twitter account and a very busy Instagram account with cute albeit sad images (I find the images people post of themselves on Instagram depressing personally: the vague look into the camera, the carefully chosen angle, the “silly gestures”) *scratches head*
I don’t get it.
She probably has someone else managing her social media. She has a LinkedIn page, but it definitely looks like her PR team runs it.
It’s not too difficult to do that if you have a team. Miley talked about taking a break once and she would email pictures to her team for Insta. They don’t even have to look at it. It’s interesting that this is slightly a revelation as people have to know by know most celebs aren’t posting/curating their instagrams themselves. I’m sure some are fully hands on, others here and there, and some like Selena who don’t access it at all. Personally, if I was a celeb I would be like Selena
I don’t think it’s that difficult. She’s hired people to run her social media. It makes sense in that visibility is an important factor for her career, but she doesn’t have to keep track of traffic, likes, and what other people are saying and doing.
I also quit most of social media a few years ago, and it’s the one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.
Yes, I see. However, if she is advocating for mental health by saying how great it was for her to be away from the internet if kind of defeats the purpose to me. I know not everyone is touched by SM the same way as her, but it would come off as less paradoxical if her team curated SM and the internet for her rather than her promoting mental health support through a medium that, as far as she is concerned but certainly people who will consult her website, is not good for it.
Also the photos she posts can arguably be put in the category of toxic display of a “better life, better physique, better wealth” that affects so many people.
To be fait, I don’t think she is a mean person but it also befuddles me to see such a disconnect regarding very serious issues.
I’m happy for her finding her peace, but it’s also very privileged because she can afford to hire people to run her socials. She’s living a very wealthy, comfortable lifestyle where she both can get mental help because she can afford it and she doesn’t have to deal with social media if she doesn’t want to.
I don’t quite understand the point of addressing this and making it a “thing”, as it comes across as people should also quit the internet (?) if they have mental health issues, but 1. A lot of people run their businesses that way and just can’t leave it all together and 2. Wouldn’t she alienate a lot of people if they took her advice and left? They wouldn’t be able to follow up on her business and promotion.
So this is all a bit backwards to me, with no clear message, some ego stroking, privileges seeping through and her somehow sounding like she’s trying to convince herself (otherwise why would she care about it 4 years later).
On a not so sceptical note: Good for her. We should all remove ourselves from time to time and take mental health breaks. Given that we can, some people really have to be on it to make sure they have an income, or are isolated and it’s the only way they can keep in touch with the world.
I quit Facebook and twitter and I’m happier.
I wish I could quit instagram. It makes me feel bad about myself
If it makes you feel bad, give it up. If you need it for business, have someone else do it. If there isn’t anyone else who can do it, limit the amount of time that you spend on it, and just do what you have to do.
Cal Newport has some really good tips for getting off SM .
I see tons of comments like this about Instagram, but I have honestly had the exact opposite experience with it. To me, it’s the most innocuous and positive of the platforms. I guess it all depends who you follow and what you’re posting.
I’m in the same situation as you tealily, IG is the only one I use these days and I love it, I mostly follow cats and travel/history type things so my feed is interesting mixed with cute. My account is just pictures of my cat (I’m one of those people).
I’m more of a Pinterest and tumblr person. They are essentially harmless and have motivated me to cook more, although not always successfully.
Your comment reminds me that I have watched every single season of Top Chef but never tried even cooking even one of their meals lol.
I’ve been off social media for 2/3 years and I agree 100% with Selena.
I agree with her, it just seems like a bunch of toxic arguing. I never was on Twitter, and although I have an IG handle, I never go there and have long forgotten my password. I keep Facebook to keep up with family and friends and my sports teams but that’s it. I had to unsubscribe from all the news channels I followed there because it was so toxic during the presidential election.
Want to reiterate all the commenters above: I quit Facebook in 2016 right before Brexit and have never regretted it one bit. I joined Twitter for a week in 2009 and just couldn’t understand how it worked so never looked at it since. Instagram has me fully addicted tho and it makes me so depressed. I quit for a few months at a time and get so much else done and feel so much better. But it always sucks me back in
“but I’m starting to think I need to divorce Twitter”
I was literally just having that conversation with myself and clicked over here to force myself to stop doomscrolling.
I am with you 100%, Southern. I’ve actually had a lovely time on Twitter for the past 13(!) years, but Elon owning what, 9%, and joining the board makes me very very uncomfortable.
Quit the twitter! I quit it in 2014, only occasionally go on it to see specific things (usually linked here, like #princwilliamaffair). I’m an insta addict, but I unfollow ppl who make me feel bad. This is my main website I visit, so thanks for it.
Anyone else wondering what her “not on the internet” means? Does she just mean social media or every browser ever ? It’d be pretty impressive if it was the latter
If anyone here is trying to cut back on social media – one idea I tried was to set a daily time limit on my phone for all social media because I would get sucked into scrolling and lose so much time and feel so unfocused. I don’t remember if I started the limit at 1 hour a day or 30 minutes but I’m now down to 15 minutes a day which is enough to have something to look at on the toilet and when I need a “brain break” throughout the day but I am better now at limiting a scroll to a couple minutes and moving on and not wasting my rations on sm I don’t like as much.
Sometimes I’ll go over the limit if I’m actually into something but having that thing pop up saying your time is up gives me the chance to put it down or choose to give myself another minute or 15.