At
the height of Essena O’Neills social media popularity she represented what many
people desired in their life. She had a mass following that mostly adored her
and wished to be like her, she was considered an elite living a lavish life
traveling to take photographs and being paid to do so. However, this life of
luxury was seriously juxtaposed when she realized that she no longer felt she
was real, but rather had become fake like the social media sites she used. She
represents her unhappiness with the life she pursued in this statement, “Nothing is perfect about spending every
single day making your life look perfect online. That is not real”. The
depression she felt from the life she was living was motivation for her to
remove herself from social media and speak out on social media denouncing it
for its fake attributes it instills in its users.
During the time
in which she was made famous off of Instagram by her looks she appeared to
strongly represent Van Dick's idea of neoliberal economics. Van Dick suggests,
“Connectivity derives from continuous pressure to expand through competition,
and gain power through strategic alliance (Van Dick, 21). Essena O’Neil fed
directly into this idea as she gained popularity and affluence through making
strategic alliances with brands that wanted her to represent them. While she was
obsessed with her physical image she was in competition with everyone else
working to become more popular than anyone on Instagram to confirm a lack of
self esteem created from her obsession over the number of likes and comments
she received.
I personally
feel her decision to disconnect herself from social media to show the world the
pressure she felt she was under to present herself is admirable. However, her
ability to leave the traditional platforms she was using and be able to speak
out and have her voice heard by such a large audience was a result of the
social media platforms she is denouncing. Instagram and Twitter were the
platforms that made her famous and by denouncing them she is simply stating
that they are horrible instead of reworking the meaning of the actual sites.
She seems to accuse the social media sites for the fakeness they impose, but
yet is still using those same platforms to spread her new values and beliefs.
She wants to teach people to boycott the sites that her following originated
from while using those platforms to reach her fan base to explain her removal
from social media. It would appear as though she wants to remove herself from
the neoliberal principles Van Dick identifies, but yet still realizes that her
popularity within the media is directly linked to the media she reprehends.
She allowed the
business side of social media to consume her to the point that she got lost in
the competition and greed associated with success on the sites. Instead of
completely shunning the social media sites she was a victim of I think she
could have made more of a difference by changing the way society looks at sites
such as Instagram and Facebook.
Work Cited
Van
Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of
social media. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Shannon - I like that you point out that instead of re-articulating the meaning of the sites that made her famous, she denounced them. Instead of boycotting sites like Instagram altogether, she could have used them to further her other, genuine interests. Unfortunately, I think the is one of the reasons she initially received a lot of criticism. Many people thought that she was just looking to gain more attention but in a different way. How would you suggest she use social media differently to remain genuine, yet change the way society looks at social media?
ReplyDelete