With more than 150 million followers, Selena Gomez is the third most followed person on Instagram. So she speaks from experience when, at this year's Cannes Film Festival, she voiced concern about the 'terrible' effect that social media has had on young people.
The 26-year-old actress, who is promoting her new film zombie comedy The Dead Don't Die, said at a press conference: 'I think our world is going through a lot obviously. But for my generation specifically, social media has been terrible.'
'It's a useful platform but it does scare me when you see young boys and girls not really aware of the news going on,' she continued.
'It's selfish - I don't wanna say selfish, that's rude - but it's dangerous for sure.'
Asked what more she could do to improve social media, given her large following, Gomez said it is 'impossible' at this point to make it safe.
'I’m grateful I have a platform,' she continued. 'I don’t do a lot of pointless pictures. For me, I like to be intentional with it. I see these young girls … I’ll meet them at meet-and-greets, and they’re just devastated by bullying and not having a voice.
Gomez also called on people to take breaks from Instagram and Twitter: 'It can be great in moments, but I would just be careful and allow yourself some time limits when you should use it and when not.
Last year, the singer was overtaken by Cristiano Ronaldo as the most followed person on the platform (Ariana Grande is second), and she has previously taken lengthy breaks from social media.
Director Jim Jarmusch described the actress as 'incredibly admirable' with regards to how she uses her huge online platform.
'She's looked up to by so many people. She's a remarkable person,' he said.
Gomez stars alongside Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Tilda Swinton in Jarmusch's new film, which blames fracking for the zombie uprising. At the same press conference, Tilda highlighted the issue of the lack of female directors at Cannes.
'Women have been making films for 11 decades now,' she said. 'There are countless films by women. The question is why don’t we know about them.
'You have a great master like [Ukrainian director] Kira Muratova, who died recently. Her obituary was that size in most national newspapers,' she added, squeezing her fingers together. 'Whereas the great male masters, when they pass on we’ll have whole issues dedicated to them.'
