The 29-year-old US singer and actress, who is the fifth-most-followed Instagram user in the world with 310 million followers, made the surprise revelation as she opened up about her mental health struggles in a Good Morning America interview.“I haven’t been on the internet in four and a half years… It has changed my life completely,” she said. “I am happier, I am more present, I connect more with people. It makes me feel normal.“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.”The comments will come as a shock to many of her fans, as Gomez’s Instagram account regularly provides career and personal updates on the star – her latest post was made as recently as two days ago.Speaking to Vogue in a wide-ranging April cover story last year, Gomez revealed she actually sends photos to her assistant to post on Instagram and Twitter.“Everyone always asks me, ‘Are you secretly on, are you lying?’ and I’m like, ‘I have no reason to lie’,” she said.“I woke up one morning and looked at Instagram, like every other person, and I was done. “I was tired of reading horrible things. I was tired of seeing other people’s lives. After that decision, it was instant freedom. My life in front of me was my life, and I was present, and I could not have been more happy about it.She added: “I watch CNN, but I try not to do it too much, because I’m empathetic to the point that I’ll cry at anything. I cried a lot during quarantine, just for the pain of everyone else.”In the same interview, she claimed she stays informed about world news from “an older woman that I’m really close with.”Gomez has long been open about her battle with anxiety and depression. The former Disney Channel star, who shot to fame on Wizards of Waverly Place in 2007, started seeing a therapist in her early ‘20s – when her fame was at its highest amid her high-profile relationship with Justin Bieber.Gomez checked herself into rehab for the first time in 2014; voluntarily attending facilities again in 2016 and 2018.She also had a well-documented kidney transplant in 2017, after being diagnosed with lupus in 2012.
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