Hailey Bieber is baring her soul when it comes to how emotionally and mentally taxing social media can be.
On Friday, Jan. 3, the 23-year-old model took to Instagram to share a powerful message about the importance of “human connection” and the ways in which social media has hurt her in the past.
The model, and wife to Justin Bieber, started off by writing, “I would say my most favorite part of existing is human connection. I absolutely love connecting with other people, I love finding common interests between me and others, hearing people’s story, I love laughing with others, and I love crying with others. I feel so very very deeply.”
Consequently, “My heart explodes with happiness when my friends and family are happy and my heart feels crushed when they are hurting and sad. The reason I say all of this is: because I love to connect, I do my best to expose my heart which means I love freely and I empathize deeply, and because of that I also hurt very easily when I feel like people don’t see my heart and see me for who I am.”
Hailey then went on to write that the reason she was sharing this was because social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter can be a “breeding ground for cruelty towards each other.”
She went on to explain that when this type of behavior is going on, she doesn’t feel that people are taking the “time to connect with each other on an honest level before they resort to hatred” and “it starts to damage what could be really beautiful human interaction and connection.”
“It could sit here all day and say the hate doesn’t bug me,” she continued. “But NEWS FLASH: it hurts to be torn apart on the internet!!!”
She added: “It hurts to be compared to other human beings every single day, it hurts for people to jump to conclusions and make assumptions. It hurts to be called names, and to feel like you don’t measure up to a certain standard.. the list goes on and on. I share this only because it weighs often on my heart and because it’s important to be honest about how these things affect us mentally and emotionally.”
This isn’t the first time the model has opened up about the toxicity of social media.
In December, she spoke with British Vogue about how social media, in her experience, can be used to pit women against each other. (As fans may recall, fans and followers have pitted her and her husband’s ex Selena Gomez against each other ever since she and Justin reignited their romance.)
Without naming any names, Hailey told the publication, “I think social media is a breeding ground for toxicity and people creating false drama between women and trying to put women up against each other and create these narratives that are just… toxic.”
She added: “I think there needs to be more people with platforms coming together and saying to each other, ‘Let’s kill the conversation, ket’s kill the fake drama, let’s squash all these things, let’s move on from stuff. Let’s not give people a reason to fuel fire and create drama and being rude to each other.””
While her latest Instagram post might have a more general tone in regards to the negativity that can arise from social media, it looks like Hailey ultimately wants to use her platform and social media accounts to connect with people rather than feed into what the trolls say about her or any other aspects of her life.
She concluded her post, writing, “Hopefully it speaks to someone struggling with the same. With that being said, Happy New Year. Let’s connect more in 2020 :).”
