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, JoseÌ Van. The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.
I like that you mentioned the concept of seeming “relevant” online. I find that with the obsessive behaviour that is our relationship with social media and digital worlds, we do have the CHOICE to opt out and not participate in this culture… but if you do so you will lose a large amount of relevancy in today’s society and that is not something many people are willing to give up.
ReplyDeleteI also like how you linked the relationship between Essena and the ‘famous’ male to what Van Djick would describe as a strategic alliance as it was a relationship based off of a business deal with mutual benefits to each party involved.
I really enjoyed the stance you took on this and the way in which you analyzed Essena’s exploitation that was masked as fame, and also the manipulation of user, content, and business models.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and found that a lot of our points were similar. I agree with the comment above in that we definitely have the choice to dive into the digital and social media world but if we choose to dive in it seems to be difficult to get out. It's easy to physically delete your social media page but there is a psychological component to it that makes it hard to eliminate that part of your life. From the sounds of it, Essena really looked to her social media followers as a form of gratification and satisfaction in terms of her appearance and the life she wanted them to see. It's sad to see that this affected her life negatively in so many ways.