It is no
question that in recent years instagram has taken the limelight of the social
media world by easily influenced users. Edits, filters, and specific angels are
what almost all users focus on when taking the “perfect” picture to upload onto
their accounts. One user who can be described as “insta-famous” recently
decided that she is quitting social media. Australian, insta-famous, young lady
Essena O’Neill took the world by surprise when opening up about her experiences
with social media – targeting instragram in particular in deciding to quit
social media. Displaying what to many can be considered a “perfect” instagram
account, Essena was not happy with how she was living her life that was hidden
behind these esthetically pleasing photos. Since quitting social media, Essena
created a website where she discusses,
"And yes, I quit all of social media. With 570,00+ followers on Instagram, 250,000+ subscribes on YouTube, 250,000+ on tumblr and 60,000+ average views on snapchat. Tumblr and Snapchat gone forever. My instagram left to expose the harsh and often humorous reality behind the #goals #instafamous culture and YouTube for purely vegan education. Deleting all those apps from my phone was one of the most empowering and freeing thing I have ever done," (Business Insider).
"And yes, I quit all of social media. With 570,00+ followers on Instagram, 250,000+ subscribes on YouTube, 250,000+ on tumblr and 60,000+ average views on snapchat. Tumblr and Snapchat gone forever. My instagram left to expose the harsh and often humorous reality behind the #goals #instafamous culture and YouTube for purely vegan education. Deleting all those apps from my phone was one of the most empowering and freeing thing I have ever done," (Business Insider).
When she states that deleting all of the apps from her
phone was freeing, I feel as though she was completely consumed by social media
from the beginning. Children growing up in this day and age are so completely addicted to digital media and virtual realities that they don’t know any
different, just like Essena. Her reality was who she pretended to be on social
media.
Within Van Dijck’s principles she explains, “Connectivity
derives from a continuous pressure—both from peers and technologies--to expand
through competition and gain power through strategic alliances” (21), which is
essentially exactly what occurs on a day-to-day basis through Instagram. Essena
explains this in her "Why I REALLY Am Quitting Social Media" video that gaining views, likes, and
followers, to her before, was a sense of “gaining power”.
It is clear that Essena O’Neill’s story and recent
actions is supportive of what Van Dijck calls the “neoliberal economic
principles” of the culture of connectivity of contemporary social media
platforms. Her assumptions and discussions of neoliberal economic
principles ultimately support the ideas in which social media and platforms
such as instagram create a fabricated reality of users creating a sense of
competition for likes, views, and followers. Van Dijck’s ideas can be described
through the notion that neoliberal economic principles explain in which ways
users of social media and particular social media accounts create the content
that they want to post based from pressures of followers and technology as a
whole.
All in all, Essena continues to gain even more
recognition from "Why I REALLY Am Quitting Social Media" video posted on social media, several weeks ago - which may have been her intent all along.
Hey Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that social media users often feel pressure to produce and publish specific kinds of content to various network. This idea leads me to question the importance of original content. On one hand, Instagram users often claim to want to see more than just selfies on their feeds. On the other hand, users tend to post similar content to appeal to the social norms of the specific network. As a result, there appears to be a degree of standardized content published to social networks, like Instagram. In my opinion, Instagram users are struggling to achieve a balance between publishing unique, individualized content, while simultaneously producing content that adheres to the social norms of the network, in order to gain likes, views and followers.
Great response! I definitely agree and your point that talked about how she was probably consumed by social media from young speaks to the fact that this social media culture may be all she knows. Even her youtube video where she exposes her instagram account, still gave her popularity and increased her views. It all feeds back into a system of prestige and popularity.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was great that you brought up the fact that younger generations are growing up in an increasingly inter-connected world and the effects through which it could have possibly had on Essena. From watching her YouTube video, it did seem as though she has been consumed with social media from a very early age and this constant pressure to keep up with your online identity becomes rather exhausting - re. why she decided to quit. But as you mentioned, she has gained some recognition from positing that video on YouTube which still garners views everyday and she is still a topic of discussion with her presence off social media.
ReplyDeleteGreat point about how the younger generation grew up in a technological culture that it is all they know. They may feel added pressure to appear a certain way on these social media accounts and to get more likes and followers. I also liked the point that you made about how Essena is still getting exposure and attention from the video about her quitting social media weeks after it was posted. Therefore it could be a publicity stunt in order to gain viewers in a different way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that she was consumed from the beginning. To be involved with so many social media platforms it hard to "quit" and never return to them again. Especially being in a younger generation where most communication is through applications rather than face to face. She seems very determined to quit but really we will only know in the future because quitting social media is very difficult in a time period like the present
ReplyDelete