Essena O'Neill - neoliberal economic principles behind social exchanges

I think the practices of Essena O’Neil prior to her confessional release of social media information were completely characterized on economic principles. Today’s “social exchange is staked on neoliberal economic principles” means that our connective practices between one another and our uses of social media forums are used heavily through recommendation advertising and economic principles drive the way we interact.  Essena is an example of this in the sense that she was used by many brands as a tool for advertising and promoting a lifestyle that aligned with the brands ideal image. Van Dyke explains that “ad culture is gradually turning into a recommendation culture” (p. 40). Essena was, in many ways, used by capitalism structures to promote and recommend products to her large following of “friends”. Her recommendations were used as means to boost consumption by the people following her. They used Essena as a tool to create an image of what other could aspire to be or to have, and through her social media platforms she was able to portray the idea that we as consumers could have the seemingly amazing lifestyle she possessed, if we too possessed the items she had or consumed in the way she did.

She talks about the exploitation of social media and us as users because platforms such as instagram are unconventionally advertising to us in order to raise consumption. Although I agree that social media platforms are used as tools for often subtle and recommendation advertising, I believe that social media is a marketing tools just as much as product placement in television shows, commercials, billboards, magazine ads, etc.  This is merely a new and updated way of advertising and marketing. Van Djick explains “personal recommendations by contacts and “friends”” which means, “having a product recommended by a friend, after all, is more effective than a product promoted by advertising”(p. 40).

We live in a consumer society and our economy is run by advertising and consumption. We are made to believe that if we posses the newest and coolest item we will be happy. This is an idea that Essena is explaining, but it is one that has been around for a long time. The difference between commercial advertisements versus social media suggestive advertisements, is that on social media it is harder to decipher what is real and what is an ad, compared to seeing an ad in a magazine or a commercial on the TV where you know the people are paid actors or models.

She says everything she did was to get like, views, followers, etc. Her entire life was shaped around the modes of social media. This related back to one of than major concepts we have looked at in this course and what our midterm assignment focused on which is how our sociality is shaped through our modes of communication.  Van Djick explains:

Connectivity derives from a continuous pressure—both from peers and from technologies—to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances. Platform tactics such as the popularity principle and ranking mechanisms hardly involve contingent technological structures; instead, they are firmly rooted in an ideology that values hierarchy, competition, and a winner-takes-all mind-set. (p. 21)

Essana’s reality and way of life was shaped around these social media forums and she was using them in a way to connect and convey an image and a message to others.  It is very clear to see, as Baym explains as social shaping of technology, the way that social media has allowed for a newly shaped way of life and this has allowed for many positive enhancements in our connectivity and communication, but has allowed for the development of anxieties in people who are reliant on social media.  It is clear that social media had a large impact on Essenas life, for both good and bad reasons, but it definitely impacted the anxieties she felt on a day-to-day basis to put on a persona online as a means to create an image that would appeal to her followers. Essena allowed the ‘pressure’ that Van Djick talk about, to get to her head and let social media and popularity and value dictate the way she lived her everyday life. This obsessiveness and addictive relationship Essena has with social media allowed her to break because she realized the anxieties that were being formed around something that she felt was truly not real.