Nearly four months after deleting his Instagram account, Justin Bieber has announced he's never coming back - because he believes the popular social media site is "for the devil".
According to Billboard, the 22-year-old singer half-jokingly told fans at a recent tour stop: "Instagram is for the devil ... I don't want to get my Instagram back. I'm sure ... I think hell is Instagram. I'm 90 percent sure. We get sent to hell, we get like locked in the Instagram server."
Bieber, a born-again Christian, made headlines after deleting his Instagram account - which had a staggering 77 million followers - back in August. At the time, he also told fans he no longer wanted to take pictures with them anymore, explaining, "It has gotten to the point that people won't even say hi to me or recognize me as a human. I feel like a zoo animal, and I wanna be able to keep my sanity." And, in another post, saying, "The pressure of meeting people's expectations of what I'm supposed to be is so much for me to handle and a lot on my shoulders."
And, while his latest declaration was made in jest, in a March interview with The Mirror, the "Sorry" singer opened up about the dangers associated with celebrity culture and social media, such as worshiping people like himself instead of the One who truly deserves praise.
"I would really suggest to people, 'Don't put your faith in me,'" he said, "Because I'm gonna disappoint you every time. Yeah. It's scary. But I want them to know that I'm not going to be able to solve their problems... I'm not that higher power. I'll never be. I'm not perfect. I've made so many mistakes. I just want to get to a place where... I just want people to know humans aren't meant to be worshiped. We're just not. So when a human is being worshiped, this is dangerous. 'Cause it does nothing but give you pride."
In an earlier interview with GQ Magazine, Bieber credited his newfound faith with saving him from being a "terrible" person.
"I feel like that's why I have a relationship with Him, because I need it. I suck by myself," he said. "If I was doing this on my own, I would constantly be doing things that are, I mean, I still am doing things that are stupid, but... It just gives me some sort of hope and something to grasp onto, and a feeling of security, and a feeling of being wanted, and a feeling of being desired, and I feel like we can only get so much of that from a human."
