Hailey Bieber is getting real about the struggles in her social media life.
Last summer, the 24-year-old chose to delete her Twitter account. Now, in a new video alongside psychiatrist Dr. Jessica Clemons, she opened up about the thought process behind that move and gets candid about the dark side of social media.
Related: Yes, Hailey Is Taking Prenatal Vitamins, But She Claims…
In the nearly 10-minute-long video discussion, first published in part on the influencer’s Instagram account and later in full on her YouTube channel, Bieber reflected on how much worse trolling and bullying have gotten on social media platforms in the last few years. Specifically, she noted, the negative attention drawn to her hit a crescendo in the time after she married husband Justin Bieber back in 2018.
She explained (below):
“After getting married especially, it really opened me up to this new kind of level of attention. I think one of the biggest things I struggled with for sure was the comparison aspect of body comparison, looks comparison, behavior comparison.”
Comparison… to what, though?! Well, Hailey kept things largely vague in her video discussion with Dr. Clemons, but she did call out Twitter specifically as having a “very toxic environment.”
And she did look back on the timeline of the trolling, noting it all came “in the last two and a half years.” That’s a significant period — not only relative to her marriage to the Biebs, but also because it’s really been in that time frame that not-so-well-meaning fans have bombarded her with intense Selena Gomez comparisons.
Related: Hailey Gets Real About Her Super-Young Marriage To Justin Bieber!
Hailey doesn’t mention particular events, but there was one memorable instance last year when she held a live streaming session that was hijacked. During the video, fans instructed each other to “go after” Hailey, and her comments section was quickly filled with “Selena is better” mentions and messages. Not cool!
Things got so bad that Hailey, Justin, and Selena have all spoken out at various points asking commenters to take a step back and chill out. But that’s largely fallen on deaf ears — and now, Hailey’s had enough of it.
She continued in the new video, sharing how much of a mind f**k all this social media torment can be:
“I think when you’re going through a situation where you just have so many people hounding you with the same thing over and over and over again, it starts to mess with your mind and then you start to question everything. You’re like, ‘Is there something that I’m not seeing that they see? Maybe they’re right.’ It got to such a low point for me that I was like, ‘Honestly, maybe I’m delusional.’ It’s like separating two realities essentially.”
Wow!
That’s serious stuff. Clearly, other people’s words online can have a significant effect on your mental health and happiness.
For now, the embattled young wife has learned coping mechanisms — like not using Instagram on weekdays, she explains in the video — in addition to wiping out Twitter completely. It doesn’t address the larger societal problem of online bullying, but at least it’s markedly improved her personal life for the time being.
You can watch Hailey open up more about all of this in the video discussion (below):
Man. The internet is a scary, scary place sometimes — especially when it comes to mental health and emotional well-being. Here’s hoping Hailey continues to find the good, discard the bad, and live her best life well beyond the reach of trolls, cynics, haters, and social media villains!
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[Image via Judy Eddy/WENN/Instar/Avalon]
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