Blog Post #4

Essena disconnected herself from the pressures of peer and technology by deleting her account (which were subjected to said pressures). Her website seems to be offline currently, which can speak to her not making her way back to social media despite the many efforts her fans have made. She knows that when she makes her way back to social media it will be a decision she made personally, and not to appease peers. Although one may argue that she is still driven by a continuous pressure to prove to her former fans and the rest of society that she is no longer the person she made them think she was.

She exposed her competition thus cutting ties with former alliances or fellow YouTube stars, as part of an attempt to relinquish her power. The only downside to this action is that stardom usually follows one around even if they delete a social media profile, and the entire situation is most likely bringing her more attention if anything. Its not as if she quietly stepped away from social media, but it is if she wanted everyone to know she was leaving. Once Essena make her way back onto the Internet, those same core followers were able to find her and follow her again just through a different platform. Her reasoning for being back on the Internet was not for an attempt to expand her brand or gain back social power, but it was merely an attempt to re-portray herself online identity as she would have liked it to be, regardless of what the social media was going to think.

I believe that everything she does from this point onwards will now be subjected to platform tactics like the popularity principle and ranking mechanism, but what makes it different is that her purpose for creating content is not for personal gain or power. Social media is a popularity contest, regardless of what your intent may be. Essena’s intent on producing social media content is no longer influenced by those previous values, hierarchy, or competition, which is the true take away and is what separates herself from Van Djick’s ideology of culture of connectivity.

Essena O'Neil - InstaFamous in relation to Neoliberalism

Jose Van Dijck highlights that social media platforms have a neoliberal economic principles. Online sociality on platforms such as Instagram fosters competition and power relations.  Studies show that “Visiting, checking other users' profile photos, liking, sharing or commenting on their photos on Instagram cause individuals to frequently engage in social comparisons related to physical appearance, thus leading to negative feeling towards their body. “(Ahadzadeh2017). According to an article written by the Guardian, in 2015 a very popular Instagram Fitness account run by Essena O’Neil was closed because the user was tired of striving for perfection in order to get approval from strangers. Essena claimed that her photos and accounts were gaining popularity through fake perfection. Essena would wait to eat until her pictures were taken, in order to be at her thinnest. Essena claimed that she would easily make $2000AUD on each of her posts that she marketed a product to her 600 000 plus followers. 

Rhetorically Essena’s decision to cut out social media swarmed her with more attention, she still maintains a website and a vimeo account. I would argue that although she cut out instgram and other media platforms, she is still connecting and influencing through different platforms. Yes her message is different but her message would not have been heard if she wasn’t famous in the first place. As seen in the picture below, even though Essena “quit Instagram” she continued to use the platform to promote her new website. Essena’s continual connection testifies to the neoliberal program that occurs on the online sphere. 

Jose Van Dijck conceptualization of neoliberalism explores how  the interactions that occur through the online platforms are economically valued. The strive to gain likes and followers is based on the desire to have what people like Essena have. Essena is able to make a living off of the users that interact with her content. Even when Essena called out social media for being fake and that the lives the famous Instagram users are living is all constructed in order to make money people praised her and gave her more attention. 

Blog #4: "Insta Famous"

Essena O’Neill was a nineteen-year-old Australian social media celebrity with over a million of followers on Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube. She fell victim to the constant pressure of her fellow social media personalities in that she would edit, filter, and let corporations exploit her and her followers to get them to buy their products. O’Neill admits that she allowed herself to get caught up in the pressures of the glamour of social media in that she felt as if she was getting some sort of gratification from being the prettiest, skinniest, ideal looking girl with millions of followers all while making money on advertisements on her social media pages. You would think that her life really doesn’t sound that bad and that she’s just complaining about all of the things that she is privileged by but it must have taken a toll on her mental health and sanity with living a double life. O’Neill says that her social media fame is the main cause of her forgetting who she really is as a person as she was too busy fluffing up her online persona and selling products to actually experience her real life. O’Neill expressed that there is nothing glamourous or inspirational about the digital world as she was forced to always post perfection and maintain an online persona that matched the profile her followers and sponsors wanted to see. “I don’t blame anyone for my actions or how much I was absorbed by social media, my appearance and this 2D world. It was me, I was being deceitful, I was lost, I was sick and I needed serious help. But of course I didn’t know that at the time. At the time I thought more money, more of these friends, being thinner… that would solve this internal misery.”

Van Dijck explains the culture of connectivity as :

“A culture where the organization of social exchange is staked on neoliberal economic principles. Connectivity derives from a continuous pressure—both from peers and technologies--to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances.  Platform tactics such as the popularity principle and ranking mechanisms… are firmly rooted in a ideology of that values, hierarchy, competition and a winner take all mind set” (page 21)”

This quote explains O’Neill’s feelings about the way in which she was sucked into her online persona and forced to post things that weren’t necessarily things that wanted to post. She was forced to maintain a certain image that will not only sell certain products but to sell her personal image as a brand itself. She knew that the only way to keep her celebrity was to essentially exploit herself. O’Neill got tangled up in her social media façade that she found that her true self was fading away. In her emotional YouTube video announcing her dismissal from social media she states that “social media isn’t real. It’s purely contrived images and edited clips ranked against each other…and it consumed me.” Some people believe that by pulling herself off social media that she was just trying to pull an attention-seeking stunt to gain more followers and go with the new trend of pulling away from the media. Some of her “friends” even posted combat YouTube videos saying that this whole thing is a hoax that needs to be shut down. That’s the thing with all forms of celebrity – the friends you think you are your friends aren’t really your friends at all. They’re just strangers who follow your life hoping to catch a free ride.

One year later her accounts are still deactivated except for her Instagram profile which now features only two photos – both inspirational quotes. The one quote says “I like the real you better than the Instagram you.”

References

Kircher, M. M. (2016, November 4). Where Are You, Essena O'Neill? Retrieved from NY Mag: http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/11/esenna-oneill-one-year-after-quitting-social-media.html

Van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford:

            Oxford University Press.

Blog Post 4: Essena O'Neill & Neoliberal economic principles

Essena O’Neill, a social media influencer released a confessional video just last year, claiming how the positive perspective she held about social media changed, and highlighting how she has come to view it as inauthentic.  She proclaimed that, “Nothing is perfect about spending every single day making your life look perfect online. That is not real. That is not inspirational”. She began to see social media in a new light as a result of her increasing fame. The glory and power Essena was experiencing from all of her followers and all the people she had interested in signing her as a model, in the end was just making her miserable. She thought that she “had at all”, but as she proclaimed, “ Having it all on social media means nothing to your real life”. Her confessional video caught many people by surprise as people who had viewed her as someone who is happy with her life and her choice to be represented in the media. This goes to show how social media can mis-portray individuals, and make us viewers perceive them in a different way.

     Furthermore, I believe a lot of Essena decisions in regards to leaving her social media platforms; can be seen in relation to Van Dijck neoliberal economic principles. In our society, a lot of the ways people connect is influenced by advertising and economic factors. Essena Instagram, and other social media accounts represented this, as she displayed an ideal body image and portrayed certain brands and companies to promote and sell this image. Instagram is a social media account known for connecting individuals, especially through this competition, and hierarchy, that Dijck speaks of. Females specifically are always competing for popularity on instgram, to get the most likes, the most followers, and potentially get noticed by professionals looking for models. Thus, this can be correlated to how Essena got caught up in this ideology, facing pressure from peers and technology, to want to expand her account and gain more power in the instagram world. The more her account kept expanding with followers, the more pressure she felt to maintain it as many people became reliant on her, which is what eventually led her to get fed up with social media in general. The pressure from peers and technology is a huge factor in the culture of connectivity, which either motivates people to stay connected, or encourages them to depart and leave behind their social media accounts, such as Essena did.

        Therefore, I think a lot of Essena views she developed toward the end of her social media début, was built around this culture of connectivity that Dijck speaks of. The culture of connectivity creates a popularity contest, and competition between users, to gain status within the social media world. So much so, that users begin to think of this status as reflecting their own real life, when in actuality it is almost like a virtual world, which is what Essena began to see. Yes, users may gain status and popularity online with getting thousands of likes, or millions of followers, and interested professionals. However, it can sometimes take on this false reality, that doesn’t carry on to your real life, but just makes you get caught up in a virtual world.  Thus, after viewing Essena story I can see her perspective and reasoning behind leaving her social media world behind, working more on fixing herself and becoming more intertwined with the real world. The culture of connectivity can make individuals become so consumed in fame and stardom, that they begin to see themselves in a new way not reflective of who they truly are. 

Dijck, JoseÌ Van. The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

Neoliberal Economic Principles: Essenna O'Neill

I definitely feel that Essena O’Neills recent actions are oppositional to Van Dijck’s neoliberal economic principles of the culture of connectivity. Previously however to her change in social media I believe she was participating in it as her social media pages reflected the principles of Van Dijck’s theory.

Van Dijck discusses neoliberal economic principles of connectivity as a way for both peers and technologies “to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances” (pg.21). Platforms such as Instagram stress hierarchy and ideologies that places importance on having the most amounts of likes to determine your self worth. This constant competition between peers created on these types of platforms is a strategy that keeps people interested in using the platform. Essenna O’Neills older instagram photos that made her famous in the first place buys into Van Dijck’s principle as she discussed in her multiple videos about the falsification of the way she looked and her “perfect life” online. The effort she discusses that she would put into each photo that she strategically posted online to create an identity for her followers in an effort to gain more likes is the competition that Van Dijck discusses in his book.

Another point that Van Dijck talk about in his book is that “connectivity derives from a continuous pressure—both from peers and technologies--to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances” (pg.21). In the article “Instagram star Essena O'Neill calls out fake social media couples” by The Guardian she discusses another famous male model who pursued a fake relationship with her strictly for business purposes. His want to connect with Essena and create a completely fabricated online relationship in hopes of increasing his following and becoming more popular and successful is an example of what Van Dijck discusses as well.

 

However, her recent efforts to educate others of the pressures and falseness of online stars and the reality in it I believe to be oppositional to Van Dijck. She is using these platforms now to raise awareness of these issues and to teach young adults to be accepting of who they are and to not believe everything they see on these platforms.

Work Cited:

The Guardian (UK) “Instagram star Essena O'Neill calls out fake social media couples” http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/11/instagram-star-essena-oneill-fake-social-media-couples

Van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

BlogPost 4; Essena O'neill

After looking into the story of Essena O'neill and her sudden departure from all forms of social media, I believe that her recent actions are characteristic of Van Dijck 'neoliberal economic principles. Essena O'neill outlined in her final YouTube video that despite the appearance of her 'having it all' and living the dream life, that all this popularity and fame has caused her to forget who she actually was as a person, because she was too busy promoting her online lifestyle that it ended up taking over her life. She now saw herself simply as an online celebrity, or someone who use social media uniquely to a point where she gained a massive following and money. She stated numerous times that there is nothing real or inspirational about the digital world, but due to the pressure brought on by the digital world she was essentially forced to maintain her online profile because there were millions of people expecting and waiting for her to do so. This pressure continued to build up and negatively impact her life which was hard to see for her at first. Essena mentions that she was going to places just to meet up with someone she only knew online, only to take a picture in which she would post online. She stressed how these pictures aren't genuine photos encompassing her life, but rather an image she has chosen to represent her online life.

Van Dijck's work on the culture of connectivity speaks volumes for what Essena is going through because as she finds herself stuck in a constant popularity contest.
"Connectivity derives from a continuous pressure—both from peers and technologies--to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances.  Platform tactics such as the popularity principle and ranking mechanisms  . . . are firmly rooted in a ideology of that values, hierarchy, competition and a winner take all mind set” (page 21).
This Van Dijck quote says a lot about Essena's experience on social media platforms as it went being a pleasure to upload content to an obligation. Like any online celebrity, once you gain that online fandom its important to maintain it and seem relevant, which is done through constant posts and updates. Essena even referred to a moment where another online celebrity approached her with the idea of dating, for the sole purpose of maximizing their followers and money. Although this has been done before and might be an effective way to achieve their end goal, this immensely bothered Essena. Van Dijck would've referred to a relationship like this as a strategic alliance. 

Essena also spent lengthy amounts of time talking about the exploitation of social media on their users, and how online celebrities are really just used as tools to promote the platform they've found fame on. For example, Essena was an instagram star because she posted popular pictures/videos on Instagram to a point where it earned her a following and fame. If it wasn't for Instagram, Essena wouldnt have attained that fame, but if it wasn't for Essena, Instagram would've never been promoted through her account. This fear of exploitation, is the exact reason Van Dijck outlines why Essena left her online fame. 
"social media's business models are a delicate harmonizing act between users' trust and owners' monetizing intentions. If users feel they are being manipulated, or exploited, they simply quit the site, causing the platform to lose it's most important asset" (pg.40).
Essena O'neill's story found so much fame because very rarely do online celebrities abandon their fame and money. Most embrace the lavish lifestyle and continue to promote themselves, but Essena saw it as a way for social media platforms to take advantage of a young women and manipulate her into promoting the platform in ways that represent her as something that she isn't. 

References

Dijck, José Van. The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

Regarding the Digital Luddites and Rand’s Devotees

Essena O’Neill’s sudden and unexpected departure from the sphere of social media sent shock waves through her online adherents, back in 2015, when she announced she was dissatisfied with the feigned representation of herself within the cyber world. Telling us that see wanted “to prove that social media is not real life” – as if the rest of us were confused.  In her defense, as a young woman it is not unreasonable to assume she became overwhelmed by the constant requirement to keep the digital in sync with the real – or make it appear so. She was now dead to the digital universe; or was she?  The neoliberal principles of individual worth being paramount, when held against the measurement and clout of capitalism, provides an interesting backdrop which to consider her actions. For philosopher Ayn Rand, one has a responsibility only to themselves, and should reap the complete benefits of their labour. By dropping out she was only increasing awareness of her brand, and dragging her digital devotees into her ‘real’ life, independent of the confines of the digital – a sort of digital-organic diaspora of sorts. She appeared to retire but her image remained, and in fact so did she. Her income dropped of course, and hence she continued to surface; and is now planning to produce a text about being an online person that went offline – published online of course. Before you consider her actions noble, consider Ayn Rand’s position that worth comes from producing within the neoliberal framework; precisely what she is doing. Her image remains and she continues to evolve within the realm of the digital, perhaps a new offshoot of the digital in this case. Yes, she appears ‘dead’ but she is very much alive and kicking out in the ‘cyber-sphere’ -- buttressed by this generation’s neoliberalist philosophy. She wants us to believe she has eschewed technology in a luddite manner and returned to the realm of the natural.  Speaking about the emergent digital ethos within the domain of social media, Jose Van Dijk notes that its principles are “firmly rooted in an ideology of …. a winner take all mindset” (21). Precisely the rub; O’Neill in fact went nowhere with her reported death premature; she is alive and well and in fact represents the new Ayn Rand offspring. With apologies to Seinfeld “Not that there is anything wrong with that”. She is working the system and sticking it to her digital devotees. She is the neo-neoliberal in a way – setting up her booth and hanging up her shingle in the digital marketplace. Buyer beware however. If you think she represents a new independence and has broken free of the digital handcuffs, you might find that she simply slipped the cuffs on you while you weren’t looking. Hey, the Wizard of Oz didn’t want us looking behind the curtain and neither does she. In other words, the real neoliberal principle, as noted by P.T. Barnum, is that “There’s a sucker born every minute”. If you think O’Neill is no longer the social media Phenom she once was, then you, I’m afraid, are the sucker.

References

Dijck, José Van. The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

McCluskey, Megan. "Instagram Star Essena O'Neill Breaks Her Silence On Quitting Social Media." Time. Time, 5 Jan. 2016. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

Blog Post #2

The power to create, produce and distribute has been radically transformed in terms of enabling vasts amount of people to generate content. However, the tradition has a long tradition, including dividing the Catholic Church. Arguably Martin Luther is a pioneer of virility and mass communication long before the creation of social media. I will consider the media message and the technological means ,as well as reviewing media modes of production and mode of accumulation in the virility of the meme Pepe the Frog and Martin Luther’s reformation.

Memes are circulated, created and transformed using the internet. There is a mode of communication that transcends social media. The height of the media mode of communication bind together dispersed listener, of an imagined community. Meme’s and Luther’s message helped/ help people locate themselves in the shared symbolic world that the message creates this mode of communication operates. Pepe the frog was originally intended to be laid – back however,  it has now been transformed to be a Hate symbol. Pepe was soon wearing the same style of hair as Donald Trump, and being associated to Nazi propaganda.

In terms of Luther’s message being spread, mode of affect- the ability to spread the message of Luther across German speaking parts of Europe in the 16^th , it share the affective infinity of one and other, bond to one another in terms of solidarity and emotion .Ultimately,  to the extent that people were willing to be excommunicated, and killed.Luther’s message went viral, and the result was the Reformation.

Pepe the frog was a part of the process in which an image becomes a brand. The process is called symbolizing the identity of a person. In the case of Pepe it was symbolizing a hate community. In order for the brand to be successful it has to maintain the coherence, the same meaning is repeated over and over creating consistency of interpretation. Pepe encountered on of the problems of using social media that the initial intentions of the Pepe the Frog meme was distorted through appropriation and its meaning was transformed.

The technological means or material is the form of the medium,  Leuthers content as viral media was spread through leather pamphlets as they were cheaper to produce and enabled wider transport. The pamphlet was religious in orientation as it was meant to bind a new religious community based on a particular theology.