(CNN) Billie Eilish says she deleted her social media apps from her phone due to her complicated relationship with the internet.
The Grammy-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 his brother Finneas.
“I don’t watch it anymore,” the 21-year-old said in a clip from the episode, which has yet to air. “I deleted everything from my phone.”
Eilish noted that the move was “such a big deal” for her as a self-proclaimed “internet kid.”
“I feel like I grew up in the perfect era of the internet, when it wasn’t so much the internet 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 computer games, but barely.”
The singer-songwriter continued, “And then when I became a pre-teen, there were iPhones, and then I kinda got older, there was everything that became, but being pre-teen. – teen and teen on the internet, it was my people, I was one of them.”
However, as her fame grew, Eilish found herself turned off whenever she met online. “I’m an internet-going person… And slowly, the videos I watch and the things I see on the internet are talking about me. I’m, like, ‘Eww, stinky. ‘ I don’t like that.” she says.
She recalled watching a “serious video” about herself online that said she was a “horrible person” and shared that the other thing that “freaks her out” on the internet “is how gullible it makes you”.
“Everything I read on the internet, I believe. Me! is true,” she said. “It’s, like, little things, like little white lies that go over everybody’s head, but everybody believes.”
According to media outlets, including Rolling Stone, the full episode will be available on March 27. CNN has reached out to Team Coco, the production company behind O’Brien’s podcast, for further comment.
Eilish has repeatedly spoken out about her presence in online media, her body positivity, and the unrealistic expectations placed on young women.
“If I’m wearing what’s comfortable, I’m not a woman,” she said in a 2021 short titled “Not My Responsibility” shared on YouTube. “If I take the diapers off, I’m a bitch. Even though you’ve never seen my body, you’re still judging it and judging me for it. Why?”