Celebrity

15 Celebrities Who’ve Spoken Out Against Social Media

Chrissy Teigen isn’t the only famous person who thinks the internet is toxic.

by Jordyn Tilchen
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 09: Jenni Kayne attends the 2019 Baby2Baby Gala presented by Paul...
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Chrissy Teigen

After 10 years on Twitter, Chrissy Teigen took to the platform on Wednesday, March 24, to announce that she was deleting her account for good. “It’s time for me to say goodbye,” she tweeted. “This no longer serves me as positively as it serves me negatively, and I think that’s the right time to call something.” Unfortunately, she’s not the only one who feels this way.

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Lizzo

During an Instagram Live with SZA in April 2020, Lizzo explained her love-hate relationship with social media. “This is where I go, this is where I go on vacation, mind breaks,” she said. “And when I go to this place and I overindulge in it, it’s made me really sick. It’s made my perception of myself sick, it’s made my joy sick. And I don’t think I was putting myself first.”

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Pete Davidson

After his split with Ariana Grande in 2018, the Saturday Night Live star announced that he would be deleting his Instagram. “No there's nothing wrong,” he wrote at the time. “No nothing happened. No there's nothing cryptic about anything. I just don’t wanna be on Instagram anymore. Or on any social media platform. The internet is an evil place and it doesn’t make me feel good.”

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Miley Cyrus

In a 2014 interview with Sunday Night, the “Prisoner” singer said that social media causes more harm than smoking weed. “You know what hurts your brain? Googling yourself. You know what hurts your brain? Instagram. You know what hurts your brain? Reading comments on Facebook,” she said.

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Cardi B

In December 2020, the “WAP” rapper told Billboard for her Dec. 2020 cover story that the internet has changed for the worse over the past several years. “Social media is becoming a very toxic place nowadays,” she said. “There’s a lot of race-baiting. People will say the nastiest things just so they can have a top comment. The comments weren’t like this back in 2013.”

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Prince Harry

Prince Harry has long been vocal about the dangers of social media. Earlier this year, for example, he came down on social media platforms for giving violent people the space to organize the insurrection on Capitol Hill. He also said that we should "avoid buying into the idea that social media is the ultimate modern-day public square” and insisted that these sites are held accountable for the spread of misinformation.

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Kanye West

In 2018, West called out social media CEOs, including Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg, for letting hate run rampant on their platforms. “There are people who are committing suicide due to not getting enough likes,” he wrote on Instagram. “Speaking for myself I personally want to participate in social media with the option of not having to show my followers or likes.”

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Daniel Radcliffe

In 2016, the Harry Potter star explained why he stays away from social media. “I think Twitter is great for certain things and certain people, there are people I really enjoy reading on Twitter,” he said. “But I don't know why anyone in my position would ever be on it.”

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Selena Gomez

During the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the “Lose You to Love Me” singer said that social media has been “terrible” and “dangerous” for her generation. “I think it’s pretty impossible to make it safe at this point,” she said, adding that she’s very intentional with how she uses it. “It just scares me.”

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Kendall Jenner

In 2016, the supermodel did a one-week-long Instagram detox. “I just wanted a little bit of a break,” she told Ellen DeGeneres during an interview. “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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Charlie Puth

In an interview with People in 2017, the “We Don’t Talk Anymore” singer spoke about the importance of looking up from our phones every once in a while. “We're in a world of Facebook and Instagram,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with Instagram, it's a huge reason for my social presence, but it's also important to counter that with nature walks.”

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Hailey Bieber

Bieber told British Vogue in 2019 that social media is a “breeding ground for toxicity.” She also said it’s full of people “creating false drama between women and trying to put women up against each other and create these narratives that are just... toxic.” No lies detected.

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Scarlett Johansson

“I can't think of anything I'd rather do less than have to continuously share details of my everyday life,” Johansson told Interview magazine in 2011. “I’m always surprised that certain actors have Twitter accounts. I guess they use it in a way that works for them. But I’d rather that people had less access to my personal life.”

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George Clooney

After dealing with negative press for his entire career, George Clooney wants to maintain his privacy. “If you're famous, I don't — for the life of me — I don't understand why any famous person would ever be on Twitter,” he told Esquire in 2013. “Why on God's green earth would you be on Twitter? Because first of all, the worst thing you can do is make yourself more available.”

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Elizabeth Olsen

"I don't [use] social media, and I feel like that's how people control their image,” the WandaVision star told Fashion magazine in 2015. “My image, in my mind, is just to disappear. I just want people to see the work that I'm proud of. I feel like you let people touch you when you have Instagram or Twitter, and I don't want to be touched all the time. I'm not going to do it — ever.”