Billie Eilish Started Believing Everything She Read on the Internet, So She Took Extreme Measures to Stop
The internet is full of interesting facts and fiction disguised as facts. Most people sometimes struggle to tell the difference; Billie Eilish has also experienced this. When she found herself believing everything she saw online, she took extreme measures to stop.
Billie Eilish’s childhood did not involve the internet much
Despite growing up as a Gen Z, Eilish’s early childhood did not involve the internet much.
“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,” she shared recently on Conan O’Brien’s podcast, Conan Needs a Friend. “I really had such a childhood, and I was doing stuff all the time. It was computers and games on computers, but barely. We were doing stuff.”
As she grew older, she became more exposed to social media and “all of what [the internet] has become.”
Billie Eilish found herself believing everything on the internet
Even though Eilish knows not everything on the internet is true, she still finds herself falling for little lies, especially because some people online can say things with a lot of confidence.
“Anything I read on the internet, I believe,” she said. “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. It’s, like, little things, small white lies that go over everybody’s head but everyone believes.”
Eilish gave an example of a video she once saw about herself. The video was about why “Billie Eilish is a horrible person.”
“It’s these definitive statements that they know are right — somehow they know, somebody told them,” Eilish explained. “God came down and said, ‘This is the truth about Billie, and you know it for a fact. You don’t know her, but you know that this is the truth, and you have to tell everybody about it, and everyone’s going to believe it.'”
Eilish decided to get off of social media
Eilish revealed that she decided to quit social media for her mental health. Although she still has accounts on sites like Instagram and Twitter, she posts relatively infrequently and is more focused on promoting her work than sharing details about her personal life.
“I don’t look at [social media] anymore,” she said. “I’ve deleted it all off my phone.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2021, she explained that she might sometimes post on Instagram and then quickly close the app, not bothering to read comments and direct messages.
“Because otherwise I will spiral out, and s***’s mean as f***,” she said. “There are some people, like my brother, who can get a text from someone he doesn’t like and delete it immediately. He won’t even read it. I can’t do that. If Satan himself texted me, I’d be, like, ‘What did he say?'”
Eilish is among many celebrities who have decided to limit social media usage. Other stars who are no longer active include Gabby Douglas, Lorde, and Kelly Marie Tran. Meanwhile, plenty of celebrities have taken long hiatuses from social media in the past, including Selena Gomez, Lizzo, and Ed Sheeran.
