CNN
—
Billie Eilish says she has deleted her social media apps from her phone due to her complicated relationship with the internet.
The Grammy award-winning singer, who has been less active on digital platforms in recent weeks, explained her decision to distance herself from social media platforms during an appearance on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast, alongside her brother Finneas.
“I don’t look at it anymore,” the 21-year-old said in a clip from the episode, which hasn’t yet been aired. “I’ve deleted it all off my phone.”
Eilish noted that the move was “such a huge deal” for her as a self-proclaimed “internet kid.”
“I feel like I grew up in the perfect time of the internet when it wasn’t so internet-y that I didn’t have a childhood. I really had such a childhood, and I was doing stuff all the time,” Eilish said. “It was like computers and games on computers, but barely.”
The singer-songwriter continued: “And then when I became a pre-teen, there were iPhones, and then I got a little older, there was all of what has become, but being a pre-teen and a teenager on the internet, those were my people, I was one of them.”
However, as her fame grew Eilish found herself being turned off whenever she encountered herself online. “I’m a person who goes on the internet… And slowly the videos that I’m watching and the things that I see on the internet are, like, about me. I’m, like, ‘Eww, stinky.’ I don’t like that.” she said.
She recalled watching a “serious video” about herself online that declared that she was a “horrible person” and shared that the other thing that “freaks” her out about the internet “is how gullible it makes you.”
“Anything I read on the internet I believe. Me! And I know for a fact that’s stupid and I shouldn’t do that because I have proof that it’s not all true. Almost none of it’s true,” she said. “It’s, like, little things, like small white lies that goes over everybody’s head, but everyone believes.”
According to news outlets including Rolling Stone, the full episode will be available on March 27. CNN has contacted Team Coco, the production company behind O’Brien’s podcast, for further comment.
Eilish has spoken out several times about her online media presence, body positivity, and the unrealistic expectations placed on young women.
“If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman,” she said in 2021 short film titled “Not My Responsibility” shared on YouTube. “If I shed the layers, I’m a slut. Though you’ve never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it. Why?”