Scarlett Johansson explains why she does not use social media

Scarlett Johansson has explained why she doesn’t use social media, and whilst there are some benefits of being on it – keeping up with friends, finding out the news – there are a number of downsides as well.

Gone are the days when it was a heart-warming place full of pictures of dogs and updates from people you haven’t seen in ages.

Actually, was it ever like that?

Nowadays, you’re as likely to stumble across a huge and unedifying political argument or some horrible and unnecessary comments as you are any actual good news.

Scarlett Johansson. Credit Image Press Agency/Alamy Stock Photo

If you’re a celebrity, that probably goes double, as some of the stuff you might see online might be people you’ve never met talking about you.

Unless you’ve got really thick skin, or an unshakable self-confidence, you might be well staying off social media if you’re in the public eye, which is what Scarlett Johansson says she does.

The 38-year-old star says that she doesn’t even have a secret Instagram account, claiming that she chooses to stay out of the social media fracas completely as her ego is ‘too fragile’.

Speaking on podcast ‘The Skinny Confidential Him & Her’, the Black Widow star explained that whilst some of her business ventures have social media accounts – including skincare brand The Outset – she hasn’t even got a hidden account online.

She said: "I can't. My ego is too fragile.

“My brain is too fragile.

“I'm like a delicate flower."

She admitted that she has ‘enough anxiety’ already without chucking that on top, and – honestly – that’s a completely understandable position.

"I had Instagram once for three days and when I started realizing that I'd spent 20 minutes looking at somebody's Instagram page who worked for a friend of mine,” she said.

"I now know you have a pit bull and two daughters and you live in, like, Burbank.

"I was like, what? I just wasted 17 minutes of time,

"I now feel like I should move to California, get this specific dog, and change my life in all these ways."

Newscom/Alamy Stock Photo

"I felt so bad, like I was missing out on this random person's life,

"I was like, I can't do this."

However, she’s not against the occasional horrendous TikTok video, jumping onto the platform on The Outset account with her co-founder Kate Foster.

"We're both so bad at it, but it's fun,” she explained.

"I like to read customer reviews and perform them for people on TikTok."

However, it has to end somewhere.

Johansson concluded: “Every time I see it [TikTok] in the office, I then become like a 3-year old with their mom's phone where I get completely absorbed into it.

“So, that's why I know I can't have it.”