Billie Eilish, 21, revealed that she deleted her social media apps off her phone, due to her love-hate relationship with the internet. The “Happier Than Ever” singer — who has over 100 million followers on Instagram — explained on an upcoming episode of Conan O’Brien‘s podcast that she doesn’t “look” at social media at all anymore. “I’ve deleted it all off my phone, which is such a huge deal for me,” Billie said. “Cause dude, you didn’t have the internet to grow up with.”
Billie, who appeared on the podcast with her older brother and music collaborator Finneas, explained what her relationship with the internet was like when she was growing up. “For me, it was a big part of – not my childhood, I wasn’t an iPad baby, thank god. But honestly, I feel like I grew up in the perfect time of the internet that it wasn’t so internet-y, that I didn’t have a childhood,” Billie said. “I had such a childhood, and I was doing stuff all the time. And it was like computers and games on computers, but barely.”
Finneas, 25, confirmed that the siblings “were outside” all the time as kids. “We were doing stuff,” Billie said. “And then when I became a pre-teen, there were iPhones, and I got a little older, there was all of what has become. But then being a pre-teen and a teenager on the internet, those were my people, I was one of them. I was one of those people on the internet. And then within myself feel like nothing changed, but suddenly I’m doing what I’ve always done, in looking at the internet because I’m an internet kid.”
Billie explained that once she became famous, she started seeing stuff about herself on the internet that she didn’t like. “I was with my boyfriend [Jesse Rutherford] the other day and this video came up and it was like, ‘Billie Eilish is a horrible person.’ And then it was like a very serious video of why,” the “Bad Guy” hitmaker said. “And the person seemed very in the right headspace. And they were saying all these things. It’s just funny, it’s such a crazy reality that I live in.”
“That’s the other thing that freaks me out about the internet is how gullible it makes you,” Billie also said. “Anything I read on the internet, I believe. Me. I know for a fact that’s stupid, and I shouldn’t do that because I have proof it’s not all true. Almost none of it’s true.”
Billie has been living her best life off social media. She’s been with her boyfriend Jesse since last fall, and they seem so happy together. Billie will also continue her Happier Than Ever, The World Tour starting March 17 until August 27, with shows playing across North America, South America, and Europe.
