Simon Pegg thinks Twitter is "a narcissist’s help centre".
The acclaimed director and actor decided to quit the social media platform after he reached five million followers and has admitted he doesn’t miss the "mean" remarks some of his so-called fans would post online.
He shared: "I felt I’d given the world my phone number. I’d read the replies and it was people talking to you as if they knew you. Twitter is a narcissist’s help centre.
"People generate their own celebrity on it and then they buy into it. They drink the Kool-Aid of their follower numbers.
"Lots and lots of people would be lovely and it would give you this little buzz of validation. And then someone says something mean, and you’re like: ‘F**k you!’ But why choose between the two?"
The 46-year-old star appeared as as Unkar Plutt, the Junkyard dealer on Jakku, in last year’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’, and admitted the sci-fi franchise fired his imagination as a child – and may even have acted as a form of escapism.
Asked if the escapism element could explain his deep-rooted love for the iconic movies, Simon told the Observer newspaper: "I don’t know. Maybe subconsciously. I don’t remember it being a particularly traumatic time.
"I remember just going into my mum and saying: ‘Where’s Dad?’ I didn’t have a great relationship with my stepfather – the one thing me and him bonded on was sci-fi. I guess we, all of us, take refuge in fantasyland even if it’s not from anything specific."
Simon Pegg: Twitter is a narcissist’s help centre
