. That’s why some of our favorite stars have decided to step away from social media over the years.
Celeb Took Extended Breaks From Social Media: From Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, and More
Twitter and Instagram definitely have a lot of upsides — like making friends, staying connected with people you don’t get to see that often and of course and keeping up with your favorite celebrities. But with the Internet trolls and haters, they’ve also got some downsides too. That’s why some of our favorite stars have decided to step away from social media over the years.
Hailey Bieber revealed in a March 2021 YouTube video the real reason why she decided to delete her Twitter account.
“I don’t even have a Twitter anymore because there was never really a time where I would go on there and it didn’t feel like it was a very toxic environment,” the model said. “The thought of even opening the app gives me such bad anxiety that I feel like I’m gonna throw up.”
She continued, “I think one thing I’ve had to come to the conclusion of is trying not to feel like I owe everybody an explanation or owe anybody anything, and really just try to correct what I need to correct personally behind closed doors.”
In December 2020, YouTube legend Tyler Oakley announced that he was taking a break from the video-sharing site after 13 years. Titled “See ya later,” his video was a goodbye message to fans.
“I have been making videos and uploading them every single Tuesday at noon for years and years and years and years and years,” he explained. “If you have been watching since I have been in college—I was 18 when I started and I am now 31 — so, you can go back and find any single week of my life between those two dates and see what I was up to. I’ve never really taken a break and it is now time for me to take a break.”
He continued, “This is not forever goodbye. This is just like, ‘I’ll see you in a sec.’ All is well. Nothing is bad in the worst way possible. Don’t go and assume the worst.”
As turned out, they’re not the only one who’s said goodbye to social media for a bit. Stars like Tana Mongeau, Chloe Lukasiak, Demi Lovato, Camila Cabello, Lili Reinhart, Justin Bieber, Dove Cameron and more have all also taken a step away from the internet before — and those are just a few. Scroll through our gallery to see which other celebrities have had to take a break from social media and find out why they were forced to say goodbye.
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Camila Cabello
In December 2021, Camila announced that she was stepping back from social media.
“Going on a lil social media detox till the new year!!!!” she shared via Instagram Stories. “Just wanna spend a little less time on my phone this week x love y’all.”
Previously, while chatting with The Hollywood Reporter in June 2019, the “Havana” songstress explained that she has an ever-changing relationship with social media. “I go through phases in my life — there are times where I feel like protecting myself and focusing on myself and being present in whatever is happening around me is more important,” she said.
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Ariana Grande
The singer deleted her Twitter in December 2021 then shared a message to fans via Instagram Stories. “Merry :),” she shared. “Be safe. I love you.”
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Chloe Bailey
The singer revealed why she took a break from Twitter during an interview with Teen Vogue from December 2021.
“I have my burner Twitter that I still go on to watch funny videos,” she shared. “I have my TikTok. I’ll go on my video ones and I love Instagram. But Twitter, I was like, ‘Let me just take a break from Twitter.'”
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Shawn Mendes
In October 2021, the singer made the decision to take a break from TikTok.
“TikTok is great. I have extreme social media addiction, so I have to really balance myself out. I have to delete those apps every now and again,” he told Audacy, noting that he’s “on a TikTok break right now.”
Previously, during a July 2019 pre-show Q&A with fans, the singer revealed that he had deleted the Twitter and Instagram apps from his phone to focus on his mental health.
“I struggle with social media a lot,” Shawn shared. “To be honest with you guys, I deleted Instagram and Twitter three days ago. I send my manager pictures, and I’m like, ‘Can you post this?’ Sometimes I need to take a break from it too, it gets to me just like it gets to anyone else. Yeah, you have to take care of yourself. It’s really, really important.”
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Chase Stokes
In August 2021, the Netflix star told fans he was taking a step back from social media.
“Gonna do a little social media detox. Gotta take care of my brain. Mental health is a lifelong journey,” the Outer Banks star wrote on his Instagram Story. “It’s been a hell of a year. We are all very grateful to have taken our little show back into your heart and home. In the meantime, going to have my team oversee my page.”
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Thomas Doherty
“I’m not a huge fan of social media,” the Disney alum told Variety in August 2021. “I don’t think it’s a very positive addition to the world, and I worry for younger people on it. I actually unfollowed everyone on my Instagram because I was like, this is just noise. It’s counterproductive.”
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Lewis Capaldi
In order to work on his second album, the singer told fans he was going to “f–k off for a wee bit.”
“See you all later in the year with a new album to shove down your throats,” Lewis captioned his Twitter message.
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LaurDIY
In December 2020, the lifestyle influencer revealed that she would be taking a break from her main YouTube channel in a video titled, “Goodbye For Now.”
“I am going to be taking a break from this channel. I feel like I’ve had bits and pieces of this conversation over on the vlog channel, in the podcast and even here and there within the videos of this channel,” she said. “It’s just been so much easier to authentically transition to be myself, I guess, over on the vlog channel and the podcast because those are brand new platforms that I started in 2020.”
She explained, “To be honest, I feel a lot of pressure to create a certain style or type of content here, and I just need to take some time to reevaluate the perspective and the mindset that I have towards this channel … To be very clear, I don’t hate the content that I’ve been creating.”
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Cole Sprouse
The actor returned to Instagram in July 2020 with a note to fans, “Know I’ve been off of social media for a while. Decided to take a much needed mental health break. I’ve never been the most active user of social media, but even the minor amount I had been engaging during quarantine had become a bit too taxing.”
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Jenna Marbles
The YouTuber quit her channel in June 2020. In an emotional message to viewers, she said that she decided to “move on” from YouTube. After apologizing for past problematic videos that resurfaced she explained that she wanted to step away because “we’re at a time where we are purging ourselves of anything and everything toxic.”
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Tom Holland
Although he didn’t announce a huge break, in February 2020, the actor told E! News that he deleted the app because it was “taking over my life, and I was becoming obsessed by it.”
“Now that I’ve taken a step back and I’ve started to focus on Tom and the future of what Tom is gonna be, I have — I’m talking about myself in the third person, I sound like such a d–k, but you know what I mean. I’m just working on myself, and I feel really great for it,” he explained.
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Dominic Sherwood
“For all those concerned, I’ve decided to remove myself from Twitter. My reasons are my own and I hope that it’s met with understanding. With the start of a new year I would like to take a breath. My Instagram will still be active. There’s no need to worry,” he wrote in an Instagram post from January 2020.
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Lizzo
Lizzo shared on January 5, 2020, that she was leaving Twitter because she couldn’t handle all the nasty comments.
“Yeah I can’t do this Twitter s**t no more… too many trolls… I’ll be back when I feel like it,” she wrote.
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Tana Mongeau
The YouTuber admitted on December 3, 2019, that she needed a break from the internet to focus on her mental health.
“I think i’m gonna take a few day break from socials. For my brain. Maybe I’ll be on IG live tomorrow with my tits out and fine. Who knows,” she wrote. “ALL LOVE to everyone in my life and zero shade to ANYONE. I just wanna take a little time to tell the people I love thatI love them and not care about comments or tweets or people’s opinion of me for the first time in six years. I wanna have a conversation with someone without thinking about the internet for five minutes. I don’t wanna fill my heart with doubt posting things that I know aren’t authentic to the way I feel, knowing the people who are real fans of me would see right through that facade and hating myself for becoming what I never wanted to. Authenticity has and always will be the most important thing to me and I think I hate myself most in moments that I stray from that. I don’t want to act like I’m happy when I’m not to maintain an image that isn’t true. I’d rather clear my head for a second so that you guys always know when I’m smiling that it isn’t fake. I encourage you to do the same. It’s so easy to get caught up in the highlight reel. Victimizing myself in any situation is not the route I want to take, I guess I just wanna be authentically happy and myself or nothing else. [I don’t know], just know that this is just something I wanna do for me and not at the fault of anyone else. I wanna advocate for authenticity and mental health awareness. I wanna advocate for being honest about my emotions. I wanna grow. so ima do me for a few days, I encourage you to do the same if you’re ever feeling down or succumbing to the pressure of the highlight reel.”
She returned to social media a few days later.
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Rachel Zegler
Rachel was forced to take a break from Twitter after receiving a bunch of hate messages. The West Side Story actress came under fire for posting some flirty messages about her costar Ansel Elgort, who was dating Violetta Komyshan at the time.
“The fact that I have to say something is absolutely absurd. But the DMs and the name-calling and throwing around the word ‘homewrecker’ over me expressing genuine love I have for my coworker is heartbreaking and I don’t want any part of it. So peace for now, I guess. Be nice,” the actress tweeted at the time.
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Tom Holland
Tom revealed in September 2019 that he was deleting Instagram because it had become too much for him.
“I know all about Instagram, I like Instagram but I am going to delete my Instagram,” the Spider-Man star told GQ Magazine. “Not like get rid of [it]. I’m going to delete the app because I need to take a break from social media. ‘It’s taking over my life a little bit, it’s going.”
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Evanna Lynch
The Harry Potter star took a much-needed week off from social media in September 2019, and she suggested her fans do the same!
“Hello Instafam! I just took a week off my regular life + social media and it was RADICAL. I told everyone I was going on holiday but I did not go on holiday! I stayed home and hibernated. I was feeling burnt out and like I needed a holiday from being me so that’s exactly what I took!” Evanna wrote. “It was such a good week. I strongly recommend taking a few days off being yourself. Life is so fast paced. It is so structured and dogged and relentless that you don’t actually get the time to ask who am I? What do I love? What am I doing it for? But if you make your world quiet and tune back into yourself again the answers are there.”
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Billie Eilish
Billie revealed during an interview with Elle Magazine that leaving Twitter was the “best decision of her life.”
“I was in Europe, in one of the worst head spaces I’ve been in. That’s when I realized, ‘You know what? Bye!’ There are so many things I can’t stop, but I can delete Twitter,” she said, adding she found herself looking at every nasty comment. “I have too much love for myself — I don’t need to see all these opinions. Shoo!”
She’s since returned to the social media app, and it definitely wasn’t the same without her!
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Chloe Lukasiak
The Dance Moms star is now back on social media after taking a break, and she explained to fans in a recent Q&A why she decided to take some time to step away.
“I know I disappeared for a long time, but I was finishing two AP classes and had to dedicate all of my time to it,” she said. “I’m posting a YouTube video on Monday and will be posting consistently again! Back on Twitter, and obviously Instagram lol.”
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Demi Lovato
In July 2019, Demi clapped back at a body-shaming internet troll. And days later, they announced that they were stepping away from social media.
“Taking a break from social media, be kind,” they wrote on her Instagram Stories.
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Skai Jackson
For Skai, her break from Twitter totally wasn’t intentional. In fact, she got locked out of her account! When a fan asked her why she’s been gone from the platform during a recent Instagram Q&A, she explained, “So, I accidentally put my birthday year to 2007 (idk how I did that)… It locked me out cause I’m ‘underage’ — Hopefully, I get it back soon.”
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Dove Cameron
Dove definitely has a love/hate relationship with social media. In December 2018 she announced she was taking a break after receiving loads of criticism. The actress explained that she was getting hate for almost everything she was doing, and it was totally bringing her down.
“My anxiety is at an all time high and I haven’t been the best version of myself the last few days. I think I’m going to try to take a social media break. Just a few days. To see if it helps,” the Clueless: The Musical star wrote. “I love you all so much! Truly, from the purest part of my heart. Thank you for everything.”
Lucky for us, her Twitter break didn’t last too long, because she was back on the social media app a few days later.
But on March 3, 2019, the actress wrote, “OK, bye again. Social media is anxiety city for me and I’m much better when I’m away from it. Love you.”
“For years socials were my most used apps according to my battery usage/how I used my screen time,” she later added. “I’ve made a conscious effort to stay off of it the last 2 months. now it doesn’t even show up as one minute of use per day. I’ve never been less anxious or more content. Food for thought.”
Since then, she’s continued to tweet, but it appears she won’t be using the app as often as she used to.
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Lili Reinhart
The Riverdale actress announced in December 2018, that she was taking a break from Twitter after a YouTuber named Elijah Daniel tweeted some harsh critique‘s of the show, prompting her co-stars to fight with the YouTuber on Twitter.
“Do people on Twitter ever get tired of being so negative and disrespectful to literally everyone and everything? Are they really that miserable?” she wrote in a series of messages that she posted to her Instagram Story.
“There’s hate everywhere, but especially on Twitter. It’s like a cesspool for evil 15-year-olds who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about and have nothing better to do,” she continued. “Taking a break from that toxic site and the people on it who feel the need to constantly attack me, my cast mates, my relationship, and Riverdale.”
Days later, Lili took to her Instagram Stories to respond to anyone who might have something to say about her stepping away from the app.
“Unless you’re personally experiencing it, you could never understand how it feels to have thousands of people spewing hate at you constantly. I am not taking a break from Twitter because of one person’s opinion. As a whole that site is not good for my mental health, and it isn’t benefitting me anymore. THAT is why I’m taking a break. And before you think about saying something ignorant like ‘she can’t handle criticism,’ just try to imagine thousands of people sending you hateful, critical messages all day long, as if their opinion on your life matters,” Lili shared. “Then ask yourself if you think being on Twitter would be a ‘healthy’ choice at that point. I feel stupid for even having to explain myself, but there’s too much ignorance and negativity out there to not say something. That’s just who I am.”
Couldn’t have said it better ourselves. After a 3 week break from Twitter, the actress returned, writing, “At the end of the day, if you go online to attack people who you don’t know… you are only making it brutally apparent how insecure and happy you are.”
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Justin Bieber
When the Biebs started hanging out with Sofia Richie back in 2016, he got a lot of hate for it on social media. The “Sorry” singer posted a series of photos with her fooling around in the backseat of a car and the backlash kept rolling in. It was then that he decided to leave the social platform altogether. He wrote, “I’m gonna make my Instagram private if you guys don’t stop the hate this is getting out of hand, if you guys are really fans you wouldn’t be so mean to people that I like.”
The singer did end up shutting down his account, however, he couldn’t stay away because he got back on the gram just a few weeks later to promote his Superbowl commercial. Ever since then, JB has been much more active on social media!
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Selena Gomez
Selena has actually taken multiple breaks from social media. Most recently, when she checked herself into a rehab facility to focus on her mental health, she went four months without posting.
On September 23, 2018, she wrote, “Taking a social media break. 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.”
But on January 14, 2019, she returned!
“It’s been awhile since you have heard from me, but I wanted to wish everyone a happy new year and to thank you for your love and support,” she wrote. “Last year was definitely a year of self-reflection, challenges and growth. It’s always those challenges which show you who you are and what you are capable of overcoming. Trust me, it’s not easy, but I am proud of the person I am becoming and look forward to the year ahead. Love you all.”
In the past, the “Bad Liar” singer pointed out that she deletes the app off of her phone sometimes. She told the New York Times, “You can’t avoid it sometimes. I delete the app from my phone at least once a week. You fixate on the [negative] ones. They’re not like ‘You’re ugly.’ It’s like they want to cut your soul. Imagine all the insecurities that you already feel about yourself and having someone write a paragraph pointing out every little thing – even if it’s just physical.”
She also spoke out about the dangers of social media during a press conference in May 2019.
“I think our world is going through a lot. I would say for my generation, specifically, social media has really been terrible. It does scare me when you see how exposed these young boys and young girls are. They are not aware of the news. I think it’s dangerous for sure. I don’t think people are getting the right information sometimes,” she said. “I think it’s pretty impossible to make it safe at this point. I’m grateful I have the platform. I don’t do a lot of pointless pictures. For me, I like to be intentional with it. It just scares me. I’ll see these young girls at meet and greets. They are devastated, dealing with bullying and not being able to have their own voice. It can be great in moments. I would be careful and allow yourself some time limits of when you should use it.”
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Rihanna
Rihanna took a break from Instagram back in 2014, when she shut down her whole account. She came back to social media six months later!
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Millie Bobby Brown
The Stranger Things star quit social media in November 2018, when she announced she won’t be posting for the rest of the year.
“I am about to begin working on my next movie, and in an effort to focus on work, I wanted to share that I’ve decided to take a bit of a break from social media,” she wrote. “Sending love to each and every one of you.”
Millie returned to social media one month later, and we’re so glad she’s back.
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Normani Kordei
This Fifth Harmony gal was so over the racist remarks and comments she was receiving on social media after fans thought that she shaded Camila, so she decided to take a break. Normani said that she was cyberbullied and was getting sent tweets and photos so racially charged that she couldn’t handle it anymore. The whole situation was terrible.
However, being on Instagram is a way to connect with her fans so staying off of it forever wouldn’t be the smartest move. Normani came back to Twitter one month later. The haters will just have to deal with how thick her skin is!
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Kendall Jenner
Kendall is known to have some of the most lavish social media posts in the world. But, when she deleted it, all of her fans were confused. She confessed to Ellen Degeneres, “I just wanted to detox. I just wanted a little bit of a break. I would wake up in the morning and look at it first thing, I would go to bed and it would be the last thing I looked at. I felt a little too dependent on it so I wanted to take a minute.”
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Zayn Malik
In 2012, Zayn said, “The reason i don’t tweet as much as i use to, is because I’m sick of all the useless opinions and hate that i get daily goodbye twitter. My fans that have something nice to say can tweet me on the one direction account, x.”
Well, this is awkward because then Zayn quit the band. He was pretty MIA on social media for awhile but without your own Instagram and Twitter, the self-promo is nowhere to be found. Once the “Pillow Talk” singer was ready to release his solo album, he got back on the gram real quick!
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Ed Sheeran
In December 2015, Ed put his Instagram and all social media on hold as he took a much needed break from his phone. He wanted to travel, see the world and create new music. He was gone for over a year, but now, Ed is back, and social media is his friend again!
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Hailey Baldwin
So, why did Hailey delete her social media? She said, “I was getting so sucked into watching and reading things I just didn’t want to know.” Wellllll… her break didn’t last long either. The model got back on the social media train soon after deleting her Instagram and Snapchat. Most recently, she changed her last name to Bieber on the social media platform and fans are still freaking out.
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Miley Cyrus
Fans were pretty upset with Miley when she announced that she was quitting Twitter because Liam Hemsworth didn’t have one. But, that was back in 2009 and a lot has changed since then. Miley is super active on Instagram and on Twitter again. She mainly posts to raise awareness for issues that she feels passionate about like LGBTQ rights, Happy Hippie Foundation, equal rights and the occasional selfie.
Today, Miley can’t stay away from social media because it’s the most useful way to get her opinions out there to a vast amount of people and to be honest — it works!
Source: J-14
