--- title: Selena Gomez on 2016 Lessons description: Selena Gomez posted an Instagram Live video where she opened up about friendships and the lessons she learned in 2016. canonical: https://time.com/4630200/selena-gomez-2016-lessons-instagram/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-10T19:37:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:20.556Z og:title: Selena Gomez Only Wants to Surround Herself With Positive Friendships og:description: The singer reflects on relationships in a new Instagram video og:url: https://time.com/4630200/selena-gomez-2016-lessons-instagram/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt044b70b45c104164/6988afae524fc0187bdfa582/salena-gomez.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2016 American Music Awards - Backstage og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Selena Gomez Only Wants to Surround Herself With Positive Friendships twitter:description: The singer reflects on relationships in a new Instagram video twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt044b70b45c104164/6988afae524fc0187bdfa582/salena-gomez.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Selena Gomez Only Wants to Surround Herself With Positive Friendships by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jan 10, 2017 7:37 PM UTC  Selena Gomez attends the 2016 American Music Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 20, 2016. Selena Gomez attends the 2016 American Music Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 20, 2016.Frazer Harrison—Getty Images/dcp by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jan 10, 2017 7:37 PM UTC If there’s anyone who can help shed positive light on the tumultuous 2016, it’s [Selena Gomez](http://time.com/4582386/selena-gomez-instagram-thanksgiving/). The singer took to Instagram — where she’s established one of the [biggest followings](http://time.com/4512549/selena-gomez-instagram-100-million/) on the social media platform — and recorded a live video about the [main lessons](http://time.com/4582386/selena-gomez-instagram-thanksgiving/) she took away from the year, such as “awareness,” _Elle_ [reports](http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a41982/selena-gomez-instagram-live-video/). [Gomez](http://time.com/4578313/selena-gomez-american-music-awards-speech-transcript/) opened up in a casual setting as she chatted with two of her friends about the importance of [friendship](http://motto.time.com/4602621/the-power-of-beyonce-and-michelle-obamas-friendship/). The singer explained why it’s vital to surround oneself with high-quality friends. She said it’s important to be aware of “the people that you’re surrounding yourself with, the people that are purposefully the ones you are spending time with.” She shared an anecdote emphasizing her point: “We go to dinner sometimes with friends, and sometimes we’ll go to dinner and we’ll leave and we’ll think, ‘That was such a pointless dinner. What did I learn from it? What will I gain from it? What was the point of it?'” But other dinners with friends go very differently. Gomez said, they’ll “sit at the table for five hours” and check in with each other. During Gomez’s Instagram Live video, one of her well-known besties, [Taylor Swift](http://time.com/4578833/selena-gomez-amas-speech-lady-gaga-taylor-swift/), did just that and commented on her video. \[[_Elle_](http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a41982/selena-gomez-instagram-live-video/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4630200/selena-gomez-2016-lessons-instagram/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4630200/selena-gomez-2016-lessons-instagram/"},"headline":"Selena Gomez Only Wants to Surround Herself With Positive Friendships","datePublished":"2017-01-10T19:37:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:20.556Z","description":"The singer reflects on relationships in a new Instagram video","url":"https://time.com/4630200/selena-gomez-2016-lessons-instagram/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt044b70b45c104164/6988afae524fc0187bdfa582/salena-gomez.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt044b70b45c104164/6988afae524fc0187bdfa582/salena-gomez.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 American Music Awards - Backstage","caption":"2016 American Music Awards - Backstage","creditText":"Frazer Harrison—Getty Images/dcp","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4630200/selena-gomez-2016-lessons-instagram/","name":"Selena Gomez Only Wants to Surround Herself With Positive Friendships"}}]}] ```