Lily Allen gave up using the internet because she became "addicted" to searching for negative comments about herself.
The Smile hitmaker was once a frequent user of social networking websites Twitter.com and MySpace, regularly updating her fans with messages and blog posts about her life.
But the singer recently turned her back on the internet, giving away her computer and her BlackBerry cell phone - and she admits she doesn't even read emails now, because it's too tempting to search for unkind postings about herself online.
She says, "I don't own a BlackBerry. Or a computer. I don't even read emails. I was using the internet in a really destructive way. In the same way as I guess alcoholics and drug addicts have to stop taking drugs or alcohol to see how negatively it affects them.
"I had to stop using the internet completely. If I was feeling bad, I'd look for negative things people were writing about me to substantiate how I was feeling: 'Look, I am fat and ugly...'"