Instagram Queen Selena Gomez 'Can't Stand' Social Media
By Hayden Wright
(RADIO.COM) – Selena Gomez is currently promoting Thirteen Reasons Why, the Netflix show she executive produced that explores the underbelly of high school. The dark show coincided with a trying moment in Selena's own life — when she retreated from the spotlight to seek help for depression and other issues.
"I was actually going through a really difficult time when they started production," Gomez said at a press event. "I went away for 90 days and I actually met tons of kids in this place that we're talking about [with] a lot of the issues that these characters are experiencing."
Gomez, Instagram's most-followed user, discussed the corrosive influence of social media on young people.
"It's hard right now," she said. "I can't stand social media, I can't stand what they're looking at. I can't stand what they think is reality and the show is real as it could possibly get."
She says she hopes Thirteen Reasons will shake viewers from their current habits online and in their real-life social networks. The show unfolds as a mystery, as teens peel back the layers of a classmate's suicide.
"Unfortunately, kids don't care. They don't care," she said. "They have to see something that's going to scare them. They need to see something that's frightening.
"I want them to understand it," she continued. "I would do anything to be able to have a good influence on this generation but I definitely relate to everything that was going on. I was there for the last episode and I was a mess just seeing it all come to life because I've experienced that."
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