Essena O'Neil: Being Aware of What is Really Real

From listening to Essena O’Neil’s video response to her social media “career” and why she really quit social media all together I can definitely relate her thoughts and experiences too Van Djick’s theory about neoliberal economic principles. As Van Djick describes the culture of connectivity she states: “culture of connectivity”: is a culture where the organization of social exchange is staked on neoliberal economic principles. Connectivity derives from a continuous pressure—both from peers 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 a ideology of that values, hierarchy, competition and a winner take all mind set” (page 21).

The part of this quotation that really sticks out to me in terms of Essena O’Neil’s thoughts is “Connectivity derives from a continuous pressure—both from peers and technologies—to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances.” Essena felt extreme amounts of pressure from the internet, followers on social media and other people similar to her, constantly. This pressure as she explains it never seemed to stop which in turn would be exhausting for anyone. With this being said, Essena explains the pressure she received from both peers in this industry as well as the technology of social media itself therefore consuming her whole life as she lost herself in this fake world. This is a sort of pressure that I believe everyone in this day and age can feel to some degree. Living in this digital world we are constantly forced to compare ourselves to others and struggle to cope with the pressures society puts on us as social media users thus making Essena’s realization easy to relate to. With knowing more about Essena and her struggles we cannot assume that everyone with a high amount of likes on their Instagram pictures are entirely happy, and we cannot hold these people to a higher standards because no one knows what they are going through but that sole person.

Van Djick states “to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances. Platform tactics such as the popularity principle and ranking mechanisms . . . are firmly rooted in a ideology of that values, hierarchy, competition and a winner take all mind set”

Platforms such as Instagram and Youtube are just a select few that allow Essena along with many other people feel this competition with other “friends” or “followers” and are beginning to believe that likes or views is the equivalent to power or true happiness for that matter. Social media can be consuming if you give it the power to do so, if this happens we begin to rank ourselves in a social hierarchy in terms of followers and likes and hold ourselves to a certain standard that isn’t even real. Our values change as this digital world consumes us and this is something we must be aware of constantly. This is the whole point Essena is trying to make in her video response to her career. We cannot let these miniscule aspects of the internet consume what is really real.