I believe that Essena
O’Neil actually attempts to counter Van Dijk and her neoliberal economic
principles but then she unintentionally begins to revert back to them. When she
first decided to get rid of her social media accounts I believe that she was trying
to shy away from the connectivity that social media brings. By exposing how she
actually used social media and how she portrayed herself through it only
reinforced her rebellion. Evidently, before O’Neill rid her social media
accounts she was acting with Dijk’s neoliberal principles. Now by making the
website she wanted help increase awareness and promote change which has only created
another social platform for her to now show her “real” life and opinions.
From
Dijk’s excerpt, “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 mindset”
(page 21). Now I see her as just feeling the pressure that she thought she had
originally cleared. It came back full circle. She wanted to rid social media
but the natural pressures just forced her back into the realm. I think it is
just a time in Western society where technology and social media is
unavoidable.
Whether she is now
making her life look perfect or not she still seems to be quite active with
social media by means of her website. Evidently it was the personal and emotional pressure
that pushed O’Neill over the edge. Now she has converted her original social
media goals from “unrealistic” to “realistic”. She just wants to tell the truth
with her new website and movement. “Nothing is perfect about spending every single day
making your life look perfect online. That is not real. That is not
inspirational. There is so much more we could be doing than editing ourselves
and proving ourselves to others.” Her honesty surely opened some eyes and
made some people think twice about social media, but I feel as though it can be
seen as another stunt in some eyes.
In the end most people would say she had good intentions
but the Dijk’s neoliberal economic principles apply to everyone. It seemed as though she fell back into what she didn't want anymore. I understand Dijk's principle due to our capitalistic tendencies everyone wants power and money. Sadly that is what
everyone is striving for these days and social media has the ability to
contribute to the end goal of money and power.
- Kevin Girgis
I like how you connect the desire of money and power to peoples use of social media because of the realization that social media can provide both of these through various means. This point you make is very interesting because it gets people thinking as to whether these social media celebrities are doing it for the fame and fortune, and as to whether what they say and do is genuine and legitimate, or absolutely false and untrue. People who have become celebrities, have falsified their lives to incorporate money, power, celebrity status and all sorts of other ideas associated with lying the high life. Although you only make this point in your las paragraph it had a very strong impact on my thinking and realization of the fact that social media plays into our capitalistic world. Users of this social media can learn to exploit these means and manipulate them in order to benefit financially, socially, and in other ways as well.
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