Social media star Essena O'Neil recently quit stardom and it shook the social media world. From past social media articles such as 'The Queen of Instagram" users can see how the construction of day-to-day life can cause mental turmoil for these popular social media socialites. Essena O'Neil officially drew the line and said, enough is enough, "I'm quitting social media."
Drawing from Van Dijck's theory in the Culture of Connectivity that "social change is staked on neoliberal economic principles through the culture of connectivity, I believe that the reason Essena O'Neil made the decision she did stemmed from her inability to sell herself and her life as a commodity. I believe that her increase in popularity lead to an increase in contracts and vice versa all based on promoting rational self-interest controlled by the private sector. By attaining contracts from these private organizations, being their face, supporting their products she entered the system on a completely new level.
Essena O'Neil became a part of the hierarchy who are all in a competition to the top. More contracts equals more popularity. As such, I believe that she supports the claims of Dijck's 'neoliberal economic principles' by publicizing the mental threat it posed to her. For that reason, she has quit social media.
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