Blog Post #4: Instafamous?

Essena O’Neil is a representation of what social media can truly do to you once you become too dependent on it. O’Neil is a teenage Australian Instagram star with over a million followers yet she quit social media. O’Neil had what appeared to be the ideal life with model contracts, advertisements, fame and money however she was extremely unhappy with her life and herself. She always wanted more followers, likes, comments, shares, etc.; she was never satisfied. O’Neil also realized that everything she had as well as the relationships she built were all fake with nothing being genuine.

   

Essena O’Neil's social media life show characteristics of what Van Dijk explains as the “connectivity [that] derives from a continuous pressure – both from peers and technologies…”. This is especially evident in O’Neil’s life given that she fell victim to the continuous pressure imposed upon her by the public and the companies she works for. Social media ended up raising her up but ultimately brought her down which is why she disconnected from social media in order to establish a real connection with herself and the real world.

With that being said, Essena O’Neil's recent actions are a characteristic of the “neoliberal economic principles” of the culture of connectivity of contemporary social media platforms. At the peak of her career O’Neil was only living in order to please everyone else but herself. In order to be fully satisfied she needed gratification from everyone else. Her pictures were catered to what companies want to see, her posts also reflected what her followers and ‘friends’ wanted to see as well; nothing was ever enough. As a result she went against the standard and challenged it. She exposed what happened behind closed doors; having a fake boyfriend for the fans, and even having advertising companies telling her exactly what to do to have the 'right' page. As a whole she was controlled by a higher power; societal expectations.