Selena Gomez says Instagram is destroying young people’s identities

In a new interview with Dazed, cover star Selena Gomez shares her thoughts on Instagram in contemporary culture, reflecting on how it is “destroying” young people’s identities.

When asked whether she could get rid of Instagram entirely, the Dazed spring issue cover star said: “Oh gosh! I think I’d have a lot of people not liking me for saying yes.”

She added: “If I could find a balanced, happy medium that would be great, but I would be lying if I said that it isn't destroying some of my younger generation, their identity. It’s because they are terrified.”

The singer also said she named her latest album Rare “because there’s so much pressure to look the same as everyone else”.

Gomez said: “It’s a huge part of why I named my album Rare – because there's so much pressure to look the same as everyone else. It was scary going back on – the first four days I was like, ‘no, there's no way I can do this’. What I’ve now done is I only go on it when I feel like I need to, and then I just go off, I don’t take time to explore or look at anything else.”

Yesterday (February 4), Gomez launched her own make-up brand, Rare Beauty, inspired by “real stories, real people”. “We are not meant to look like everybody else, we’re meant to look like ourselves,” she wrote on Instagram.

Across the mammoth feature, Gomez answers questions put to her by friends, peers, collaborators, and her biggest fans – Timothée Chalamet, Jim Jarmusch, Yara Shahidi, a variety of stan accounts, and more.

Pre-order the spring issue of Dazed, starring Selena Gomez, below.