Despite being an actor from the time he was a teen (in movies like Super 8 and The Kings of Summer), Gabriel Basso shot to stardom when The Night Agent debuted for those with a Netflix subscription back in 2023. With its third season having recently hit the 2026 TV schedule, the actor just revealed that he decided to leave social media like many other stars have, but his reason is kinda outta left field.
Why The Night Agent’s Gabriel Basso Recently Left Social Media
For all the somewhat welcomed trappings of celebrity, we do know that it means increased scrutiny for those who have become famous, and sometimes that’s really not a good thing. Over the years, stars like Selena Gomez, Daisy Ridley and Scarlett Johansson have left a variety of social media platforms behind (at least for a while) because of things like intense trolling and bullying, or finding it overwhelming. George Clooney, however, simply tells young actors to “get the f--k off” of things like Instagram.
During a recent interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Night Agent’s Gabriel Basso confirmed that he just deleted his Instagram. Though that’s not uncommon, his reason for doing so is. As he told the host, “it was a pretty instantaneous decision” while “doom-scrolling,” and involved a photo that most people would post if they had the chance. Basso said:
I saw a picture from the top of Mount Everest. I was like, ‘Wow, this is beautiful,’ Then I stopped and I was like, ‘Wait, what? Why do I now know what that looks like?" It pissed me off that that guy stepped over literal, like, bodies to get up there to see that view, and now I was seeing it from my couch. It bothered me that I had that image in my head now without any effort, you know, to earn that visual. I was like, ‘Dude, screw this whole platform.’
That certainly is a very specific reason to delete Insta, which I can’t say I’ve ever heard from anyone other than the “not as cool” Juror #2 actor. I do, in theory, get his basic point. It feels odd to him to be able to sort of share other people’s life experiences through social media, which he added seemed “insane” and “whack” to him, because, “If you make it to the top of Mount Everest, that should be yours.” He continued:
Yeah, I want to mind my own business, dude. I'm sick of everyone else's business being my business.
Again, that is a great point by Basso. My only argument would be that this is hardly something new. Even though social media has made it possible to share things like getting to the top of Everest with the whole world and basically in real time if we want, people have always found ways of doing this, whatever the reason they decided to do it.
Just think of the decades worth of National Geographic images and nature documentaries that have taken viewers all over the planet. The intent behind those things might be different from a social media post, but the result (everyone being able to enjoy far-flung locations and experiences) is still pretty much the same.
I do, though, understand that intent matters, as does what we all prefer to see and do with our free time. So, all that’s really important is that Basso made the choice to remove something from his life that he didn't like, and hopefully he’s happier for it.
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