Essena O'Neil and Van Dijck

After watching Essena O’Neil Youtube video, I think that it is evident that she fosters similar ideologies as presented by Van Dijck conceptualizing neoliberal economic principles of the culture of connectivity of social media platforms. Van Dijck states “connectivity derives from a continuous pressure- both from peers and from technologies- to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances.” Therefore, through the uses of social media platforms, people and companies manipulate data/posts with goals of gaining popularity, status, and following. Throughout the video, O’Neil vocalizes her struggles with this exact concept of continuous pressure to update the perfect image from what is seen as her perfect life. She identifies this as not only a problem within herself now, but something that has been with her since she was introduced to social media platforms and their uses. Since she was 12 years old she dreamed of being famous, well know, looked up to the stars on TV and magazines wanting to be like them. Sounds familiar right? This is a problem with youth not only today but for at least a decade now through the introduction of social media. It creates permeant presences and insight into one's life or the life they want people to think they live. Each post she would create would be edited, posed, and filtered to get the perfect and ideal picture that makes her life seem fantastic. She denotes these ideals she possessed through growing up with idolizing celebrities, the economic success of social media platforms, and constantly wanting to be this perfect person she was so familiar with seeing around her.

With this misconception of reality present, people start to question, where is the authenticity? Are we are just puppets for commercialization and commodification participating in  each social media platform selling themselves to the world in hopes of being recognized, liked, followed. But what is important to note from O’Neil is that through all this following and popularity, she had never been so miserable and alone. The social media platforms and the ways they are used today, promote the idea of being famous or well known. Both O’Neil and Van Dijck offer real perspectives on the issues social media platforms can create through these popularity norms that have evolved. The users that are engaged with these technologies suffer from peer and technological pressures to be constantly connected and up to date with posts, as well as, posting their own lives for people to interact with. It has merely become a game of who can get the most likes, comments, and followers, but what O'Neil and Van Dijck emphasize is the importance of realizing these are online amenities and not realities. They stray far from authentic daily life and not something people should have to strive for. They are unrealistic ideologies that govern the uses of these technologies and creates social pressures not only online but ones that are also translated into users everyday life.