Charli XCX thinks social media is "like a drug".
The ‘White Mercedes’ hitmaker has said she finds sites like Twitter and Instagram to be "hard" to navigate because they come with so much "pressure", and says that if she didn’t need to have accounts on the sites in order to connect with her fans, she "probably wouldn’t" use the platforms at all.
She said: "I’m definitely not putting things online that I don’t feel comfortable with.
"The pressures of social media is what I find to be quite hard, because it’s like a drug. One day the high is really good and the next day you’re defeated, it’s this constant chase for validation. And when you get it it’s great, and when you don’t it’s really sad, and I hate that. I hate that I play into that myself.
"For me it’s a tool that I kind of have to use. But if I didn’t have to use it, I probably wouldn’t. But I try my best to just make it as fun and light as possible. Apart from when I go really depressed and then I’m like: deep dive, emo, here we go, crying."
And Charli, 27, says she finds "freedom" in her life in going to parties and "getting drunk", although she wants people to know that’s not all she does.
When asked what the biggest misconception about her is, she said: "That I’m just this person who parties every single day and is really confident and loud and gets drunk all the time. And that’s part of it, but also I’m a business woman, and I can be really shy sometimes.
"The only time my mind is not thinking about work and new ideas is when I’m partying. That’s why I party so hard – because it’s like freedom."
The ‘Flash Pose’ singer loves to work, and says she gets "restless" when she takes too much time away from her career.
She said: "I get very restless if I’m not doing shit. On holiday, generally, I get three days in and I’m having a breakdown, or I have three days to think about all of these ideas in my head and I’m like, ‘I want to make a documentary, I want to form a band, I want to do a side project with this person’ – and it all comes out in, like, 50 emails and my team are going, ‘F***ing f**k you! Get her on tour, she’s thinking too much!’ "
Charli already has plans for her future, too, which could see her leave her music career behind in favour of fiction writing.
Speaking to NME magazine about her 10 year plan, she explained: "Oh god, f**k, I don’t know, everything is possible. I think what I’d like to do is achieve a really successful 180 in ten years, like, ‘I’m a musician, I’m a musician and then – BAM! – I’m now a writer and I write fiction books, and it’s not one of those awkward moments as I’m really good. But it’s not a writer – a successful 180 is what I want to achieve, but I haven’t decided to what."
Charli XCX: Social media is a ‘drug’
