Lorde glad to be ‘out of touch’ with social media
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Lorde is glad she’s fallen “out of touch” with social media.
The ‘Royals’ hitmaker – who has quit social media and turned her phone into a “dumbphone” with a greyscale display which is meant to stop people compulsively checking their device – admitted she is “privileged” to be able to step back from the online world, but it’s “one of the better” decisions she’s made.
She told The Guardian newspaper’s G2 magazine: “I actually think falling out of touch is one of the better things, emotionally and creatively, to happen to me in my 20s.
“I’m aware it’s absolutely a social and economic privilege to do so.
“I really think people need me to be able to see our world clearly in order to write about it, and I couldn’t do that and remain online.”
The 24-year-old star referenced Annie Dillard as she noted “how we spend our days is how we spend our lives”, and explained how this made her step back from social media.
She added: “I was like, I can’t do this for ever, this can’t be it.
“[Social media was fun]. But I think it was altering my neural pathways and homogenising my trains of thought.
“I was losing touch with my ability to explore an idea at my own pace, which felt like losing my free will at times.
“I was very addicted. To be able to put that aside has put me into such a position of power and fertility and creativity and confidence.”
Lorde’s decision to go offline also came after she read artist Jenny Odell’s ‘How TO Do Nothing’, and she hopes her new album ‘Solar Power’ can impact her own fans in the same way.
She explained: “[I hope it does for fans] what that book did for me, which was to retrain my attention.
“It was literally walking my dog – 45 minutes twice a day at the local park – and that was so big and transcendent for me.”