Essena O'Neill and Neoliberalism

Essena O’Neill was a 19-year-old Instagram model that was very popular within the online community. With hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers, it made sense for different brands to pay her to promote their products – she had the reach. While O’Neill’s actions when she “quit social media” showed both characteristics and opposition to Van Dijck’s “neoliberal economic principles of the culture of connectivity of contemporary social media platforms,” her intention was ultimately characteristic of this notion.

In terms of neoliberalism, the shift from public (companies and brands) to private (Essena O’Neill) is quite apparent in her desire to achieve individualism. She no longer wanted to dress in a certain way, pose in a certain way, or have a product placed at a certain angle for a company’s benefit simply because they told her so. In the context of social media, forms of capitalism can be seen; instead of monetary value, value is created through the amount of “likes.”

As Van Dijck explains, “Connectivity derives from a continuous pressure – both from peer 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 an ideology of that values, hierarchy, competition and a winner take all mind set,” (Van Dijck, 21). In this situation, these “strategic alliances” then she mentions refer to O’Neill and the brands that she promotes. Together, O’Neill and the company are both benefitting – the company gets promotion for their product, O’Neill gets compensation; the company provides the money, and O’Neill provides the audience. However, by shifting her attention back to her own goals instead of the company’s goals, she takes a neoliberal approach to gain social value as a private entity.

Although her attempt to defy hierarchies, competition and obsessiveness over Instagram “likes” showed positive characteristics of neoliberalism, Essena O’Neill also contradicts herself by showing oppositional characteristics of neoliberalism. O’Neill argues that social media “makes her miserable” and essentially cries about how social media promotes inauthenticity, social hierarchies and struggle to look, act, or be portrayed a certain way. The way that she voiced this opinion using social media services such as YouTube completely contradicts the message that she is trying to get across. While she complains about inauthenticity and fakeness, her YouTube video that has since been taken down has clearly been edited, omitting information and only displaying parts of the video that she wants the public to see. Although it is now for her own self rather than on a company’s behalf, she maintains social hierarchies by competing for YouTube views. She clearly wanted her message to spread across the Internet, and the way to do that is to promote herself online, just as she did through Instagram – the only difference is that the actual message was different.

In addition to her YouTube video, she soon after launched a blog basically stating that because she was not getting paid by sponsors anymore, she was poor and could not afford rent. She openly asked anyone reading her blog to donate money to her, stating “if this [website] is of value to you then please support me because I can’t afford my own real life,” (Daily Mail). Now instead of asking for capital through likes, she asks for actual money. Instead of using her high social status to tell others to buy a product, she uses her self-claimed low social status to tell others to buy into her new lifestyle.

Essena O’Neill’s recent message has shown characteristics of neoliberal economic principles, however her actions showed the opposite. It is great that she wanted to speak the “truth” and move away from corporate and government control in order to live by her own rules, but she still promoted value, hierarchy and competition through her YouTube video and blog.

Grant Geary, Belinda. (3 Nov 2015). "I can't afford real life: Instagram model, 19, who quit her online celebrity life because it was 'dishonest and contrived' issues tearful appeal for public to PAY for her new, simpler existence." Daily Mail. Web.

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