The internet is full of interesting facts and fiction disguised as facts. Most people sometimes have trouble telling the difference; Billie Eilish experienced the same thing. When she realized she believed everything she saw online, she took extreme measures to stop it.
Billie Eilish’s childhood didn’t have much to do with the internet
Despite growing up as Gen Z, Eilish wasn’t very connected to the internet during her early childhood.
“I feel like I grew up in the perfect time of the internet, when it wasn’t so internet-heavy that I didn’t have a childhood,” she recently shared on Conan O’Brien’s podcast, Conan Needs a Friend. “I really had that kind of childhood and I was doing stuff all the time. It was computers and games on computers, but hardly any. We did stuff.”
As she got older, she became more exposed to social media and “everything.” [the internet] became.”
Billie Eilish believed everything on the internet
While Eilish knows that not everything on the internet is true, she still falls for little lies, especially since some people can say things with a lot of confidence online.
“Everything I read on the internet, I believe,” she said. “Me! And I know for a fact that’s stupid, and I shouldn’t be doing that because I have evidence that not all of it is true. Almost none of it is true. It’s such little things, little white lies, that everyone go through your head, but everyone believes.”
Eilish gave an example of a video she once saw of herself. The video was about why “Billie Eilish is a terrible person”.
“It’s those final statements that they know are right — they kind of know, someone told them,” Eilish explained. “God came down and said, ‘That’s the truth about Billie and you know it for sure. You don’t know it, but you know this is the truth and you have to tell everyone about it and everyone will believe it.’”
Eilish decided to get off social media
Eilish announced that she has decided to leave social media because of her mental health. While 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’m not looking [social media] no more,” she said. “I deleted everything from my phone.”
In a 2021 interview with the Los Angeles Times, she explained that she would sometimes post on Instagram and then quickly close the app without bothering to read comments and direct messages.
Billie Eilish | Harry Durrant / Contributor
“Because otherwise I’ll come out of the spiral and sh*t is as mean as sh*t,” she said. “Some people, like my brother, can get a text message from someone they don’t like and delete it right away. He won’t even read it. I can not do this. If Satan texted me himself, I would say, ‘What did he say?’”
Eilish is among many celebrities who have decided to limit their use of social media. Other stars who are no longer active include Gabby Douglas, Lorde and Kelly Marie Tran. Meanwhile, many celebrities have taken long breaks from social media in the past, including Selena Gomez, Lizzo, and Ed Sheeran.
