Essena O'Neill and Social Media

Essena O'Neill and Social Media 

As social media, has become increasingly popular so has the ‘stardom’ that an individual can attain with it. There are thousands of people who make their living off of platforms such as Instagram. Essena O’Neill being one of them. They post sponsored ads of them using products, and some have even begun staring in commercials. For example, Jade Roper, from the reality TV franchise, the “Bachelor” and “Bachelor in Paradise". Although she didn’t gain her fame from Instagram initially. She now uses it to promote “Sugar Bear” gummy vitamins for your hair alongside many of the other contestants. Who are all most definitely getting paid for their promotions.   

They use Instagram to keep their fame, by sharing their life and in turn they get sponsored by all the newest and trendiest products.

 O’Neill shut down her Instagram account after being approached by a male model to be his ‘girlfriend', girlfriend being the operative word. He approached her to make a business deal, they would form an online relationship to gain more followers and more money (Parkinson, 2015). She soon realized that she didn’t want to pretend to be someone she wasn’t entirely, all the clothes and products she promoted were their because she was getting paid for it. She created a persona for herself and in turn got lost in all the chaos. 

Van Dijck states that “… 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…” (pg. 21).

What Van Dijck means by this is that in society today being  apart of a social media platform is not enough. The amount of, likes, followers and comments an individual receives has become very important to users than ever before. Joining a platform can instantly add stress to anyone. Those who attain a certain 'high level' status on platforms, such as Instagram want to keep them, as many benefits come with it. For example, recently there was a job posting on Instagram for a bathing suit company and the requirement was that you needed to “love bathing suits” and have over “1000” followers. Like Van Dijck said “…. Popularity principle and ranking mechanisms…” (pg. 21) are becoming increasingly important for social media… in this case it can determine whether you get a job or not.

I do think that what Essena O’Neill has recently said about social media does correlate with what Van Dijck describes as “culture of connectivity”. She wanted to break away from the life she created through corporate promotions and the strategic tactics she used to gain more followers. Although she created another platform to share her message, this platform was a clean slate for her, a way to share who she is, and what she believes in.  

Sources:

Dijck, José Van. The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

Parkinson, H. J. (2015, November 11). Instagram star Essena O'Neill calls out fake social media couples. Retrieved December 05, 2016