The CEO of Instagram has expressed his disappointment that Selena Gomezdeleted the app after it made her ‘depressed’.
Gomez, once the most followed person on the platform and now the third (after Cristiano Ronaldo and Ariana Grande), has been honest about her struggles with social media, Instagram in particular, and mental health.
She recently announced she’d stopped personally using it after it left her feeling low and affected her self-esteem.
‘I used to use it a lot but I think it’s become really unhealthy for young people, including myself, to spend all of their time fixating on all of these comments and letting this stuff in,’ she told Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest on their show. ‘It would make me feel not good about myself and look at my body differently,’
Gomez has now deleted her Instagram account on a colleague’s phone instead of hers, so she can just access it when she wants to share something with fans.
In the past, she’s also spoken about taking regular breaks from the platform and even deciding not to know the password for her account. At Cannes Film Festival last month, she told reporters ‘social media has been terrible, for my generation specifically‘.
Selena at Cannes Film FestivalTONY BARSONGETTY IMAGES
In response to her latest comments, Adam Mosseri – the CEO of the app – has said the singer’s criticism of Instagram left him feeling ‘disappointed’ but would love to talk to her about it to collaborate on ways to improve the platform.
‘I would love to hear from her,’ Mosseri told BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. ‘If there’s something specific that she thinks is working or not working about the platform, I’d love to hear. We like the criticism, we like to have the conversation.’
However, Mosseri also questioned whether Gomez’ experience of Instagram – where she currently holds 152 million followers, is inundated with comments and likes and looked to as a role model – can be compared to the average user’s experience.
Adam Mosseri at a Facebook conferenceJUSTIN SULLIVANGETTY IMAGES
‘She has over 100m followers,’ he said. ‘It’s a whole other world.’
Credit: ELLE
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