Katy Perry Says Keeping Her Personal Life Private 'Is Like Walking a Tightrope'

With over 170 million social media followers and KatyCats around the world, Katy Perry admits it can be difficult keeping her personal life private.

“Well, it’s like walking a tightrope,” the singer, 33, told reporters following her Q&A panel for American Idol during the TCAs in Los Angeles on Monday.

“You don’t have to answer any question. You’re not under oath. You don’t have to leave bread crumbs all over social media if you don’t want to,” Perry continued. “But some people do that and need that and it’s a tool. Listen, all the fame stuff is just a bi-product of what I do, it’s not what I sought out to do. I just wanted to tell stories and sing and connect with people.”

Her comment about her personal life comes days after she and ex Orlando Bloom fueled reconciliation rumors after they were snapped by fans enjoying a meal together in the Maldives.

However, the pair is not officially back together and are very much still friends, a source close to Bloom, 40, told PEOPLE recently.

“Orlando and Katy were traveling separately over the holidays and met up in the Maldives after,” the source said. “They have fun and love seeing each other, but it’s nothing serious. They are not officially back together.”

While Perry admitted that she does not abstain from social media, it’s not her main priority.

“I love movies. I love traveling. I love culture. I love modern art museums. But I’m just like anyone, I scroll,” she said on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Grammy-nominated star remains focused on her career and making music that will inspire her fans.

“I think you’ve got to keep it spicy for sure. Especially with young people their attention spans and people in general,” Perry shared. “Our options and our choices – we have so much choice we don’t even know what to choose these days. I think you really have to separate yourself and that sometime you hit bells and whistles. Or maybe you’re such an authentic person you can hear it in their voice. I don’t want to hear people’s voices. I want to feel people’s voices.”

The singer is advising those hoping to be the next American Idol, that choosing one of her songs is not going to win them any extra points.

“I wouldn’t be tough but I wouldn’t say it’d be the smartest thing to do unless you’re reinventing it. Because typically I would be singing it the night before and I’ve sang it ten thousand times,” she said.

“But I want to hear it. But if you reinvent it then you re-inspire it for me so you give me that dopamine hit of ‘oh yeah I feel that, I want to see what you do with something else.'”

Perry admits hearing what some of the singers have gone through to get a chance to sing for her is a “beautiful hurt” – but she is trying to keep her emotions at bay when it comes to being a judge.

“You really get invested in their stories obviously after you realize they have that kind of diamond in the rough,” the “Swish Swish” singer said.

“It’s hard when they’re trying to sell the whole thing on the sob story it’s like, everybody is going through something. Everybody comes from somewhere. I’m not dismissing that and I don’t want to take light of your situation but this is a business and we’re here to find someone to elevate, to make an Idol.”

American Idol premieres on ABC Sunday, March 11.