Essena O'Neill- Changing the Game

            The very popular Instagram model Essena O’Neill, decided to delete all of her famous social media profiles in order to escape the prison she had created for her self by fetishizing social media. She was a young girl that many other girls idolized and admired only through social media platforms, specifically her Instagram account. People were enthralled with how stunning, beautiful and skinny she was, that she was given this model status and celebrity status fairly quickly after joining Instagram. Like all Instagram accounts, Essena revealed that hers was staged and completely manipulated a “fake”. She would spend hours trying to capture the perfect photograph that would make followers jealous and envious of her body. She would spend hours of her life attempting to capture a happy moment rather than actually living in that moment and fully experiencing it.

            After getting fed up with the idea of living her life prison to this social media platform, she released the YouTube video “Why I REALLY am quitting social media” which stirred a lot of controversy. On the one hand, people further admired her for speaking the truth and being an advocate for real beauty and living your authentic life. On the other hand, people thought she was starting this campaign to gain more attention and boost her image further. It is difficult to decide whether or not Essena’s intentions were pure or whether or not she wanted a new form of Internet fame. In her video, she was describing that she was the girl who “had it all” and that this meant nothing in her real life. She lost more than she gained from “having it all” on social media. Essena explains social media as being a business. She explains that it is no longer a way to connect with people to talk about and enjoy life together, but rather it thrives on money, with currencies such as likes and comments.

            Van Dijck explains the culture of connectivity of contemporary social media platforms using neoliberal economic principles, and explains that “Platform tactics such as the popularity principle and ranking mechanisms  . . . are firmly rooted in a ideology that values, hierarchy, competition and a winner take all mind set” (Van Dijck, 21). Using this definition of the culture of connectivity, it is made evident that Essena O’Niell’s actions of quitting social media could be considered based on the characteristics of the neoliberal economic principles. Essena was enthralled with being perceived as perfect on social media, whether or not she felt that way in reality. She valued stranger’s comments and likes as an important measure of self-esteem and felt the urge to constantly be updating or posting new pictures to her social media accounts in order to stay relevant or “winning”.  Essena gave power to social media, and fetishized it, which would only benefit herself. This is a common mistake many people are making with social media, and allowing it to control our lives without us even being aware. Social media can be very dangerous to young and impressionable minds; it gives us a false sense of high self-esteem and self-worth.

SOURCES

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

Essena O'Neill - Why I REALLY Am Quitting Social Media - (Original Video). Perf. Essena O'Neil. Why I REALLY Am Quitting Social Media - (Original Video). Youtube, 3 Nov. 2015. Web. 2 Dec. 2016.