6 celebrities who called out social media as ‘toxic’: Tom Holland, Selena Gomez, Kate Winslet, and more

In today’s world of digital boom, social media is everywhere. Most of us can’t help but get sucked in, scrolling mindlessly, comparing ourselves to everyone else, without really noticing how it messes with our heads. It’s just part of life now, whether we like it or not.

However, it’s not only regular people feeling the pressure. Big names in Hollywood and Bollywood have had enough, too. Sure, these platforms connect billions of people and let fans get closer to their favorite stars. That sounds great on paper. But honestly, there’s a dark side that’s hard to ignore. Lately, more and more celebrities have started speaking up about how social media wrecks mental health and self-esteem.

Here, we'll talk about six such celebrities—Kate Winslet, Tom Holland, Selena Gomez, Lili Reinhart, Sonakshi Sinha, and Karan Johar—who’ve decided not to stay quiet. Some have ditched social media completely. Others stick around, using their platforms to demand healthier, kinder online spaces. Either way, they’re not pretending everything’s fine.

Kate Winslet doesn’t hold back when it comes to social media. She’s slammed its impact on self-esteem, beauty culture, and mental health more than once. For her, social media isn’t just a distraction; it’s something she flat-out refuses to join, especially because she thinks it’s unhealthy for kids and teens. In a BBC interview, she revealed that at home, she keeps social platforms completely off-limits. Growing up under the spotlight made her extra wary of living online, and she’s pretty vocal about the way social media warps beauty standards. She’s even called out the pressure to take weight-loss drugs as part of the problem, blaming these platforms for pushing people to see themselves in a distorted way.

When Winslet accepted her BAFTA in 2023, she didn’t just thank people. She used that moment to urge parents and lawmakers to step in, fight back against toxic online content, and protect young people from the addictive pull of social platforms.

Tom Holland, the fan-favorite and friendly neighborhood Spider-Man himself, has been totally honest about how social media messes with his head. He’s talked about getting overwhelmed by the nonstop comments and how it spiked his anxiety. At one point, he just walked away from it all because reading about himself online made things spiral. In a video message to fans, he explained that stepping back was the only way to protect his mental health.

To date, Holland has been active on social platforms on rare occasions, and most of the time, those occasions have turned out to be his professional commitments.

Selena Gomez might have one of the world’s biggest followings, but that hasn’t made her immune to social media’s dark side. She’s taken long breaks from Instagram and other platforms, calling social media “dangerous” when it started messing with her sense of self. Stepping away made a huge difference for her mental health. Time and again, in several interviews, Gomez has talked about the constant need for validation and exposure, and how it left her drained. She has also noted how taking time off cut down on comparisons, let her focus on therapy, and helped her take care of herself.

At a press conference during the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Selena, in fact, called social platforms “terrible” for her generation, especially because they push young people to compare themselves to impossible standards. Yes, social media can be useful, but in her experience, it usually does more harm than good, fueling anxiety and making teens feel worse about their lives by showing only the highlights.

Lili Reinhart, the ‘Riverdale’ breakout star, has always been extremely vocal about the way social media messes with body image and mental health. Even though she’s made headlines for comments about other celebrities, her bigger point is about how these platforms shove impossible beauty standards and unrealistic expectations onto young people.

She’s also worked on projects like ‘American Sweatshop’, digging into the emotional damage that comes with life online. For Reinhart, this isn’t just talk—she’s personally aware of how harsh social media can be and how poor moderation lets toxic stuff slip through.

Karan Johar doesn’t hold back when it comes to talking about social media. He walked away from Twitter after getting fed up with all the negativity and toxic energy. For him, it just wasn’t worth it. He wanted more positivity, more space to focus on himself, and less time dealing with the nonstop noise online. Lately, he’s been clear about how he feels. He talks about tuning out toxic people, building up your own self-worth, and refusing to let internet hate mess with your real life. He didn’t disappear from social media altogether, but he’s figured out his boundaries. Protect your peace, ignore the trolls, and remember: your worth has nothing to do with likes or comments.

Sonakshi Sinha has had her share of online hate, too. Back in 2020, she deactivated her Twitter account. She called out the trolls and bullies who made it a miserable place, and urged others to look out for themselves and walk away from spaces that feel more hateful than supportive. Her move got people in Bollywood talking about just how much damage social media can do, and how it chips away at creativity and happiness.