“Jose VanDijk argues that culture of connectivity is 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 mindset” (page 21)”
Australian social media icon Essena O’Neil recently took to social media to proclaim that there is nothing authentic about the nature which social media platforms thrives on. Her overly hysterical and borderline irritating speech expressed how the 18 year old model was separating herself from her social media profiles in order to live a more honest life which separates itself from vanity and necessity of peer approval. If we look at things from Essena’s perspective where she emphasizes the process of creating a “perfect” insta post in order to satisfy consumers and the brand we see that she embodies the ideology behind the culture of connectivity. Essena is a key factor for many corporations to sell their products, she would post visuals which were over processed utilizing their products where fans obsessed over the latest trends she was onto, which eventually creates a consumer culture based around her behaviours. The pressure from her peers and fans to look presentable and maintain an online presence attributed to Essena’s exhaustion and frustration to social media.
In my opinion there is no “truth” or “expose” when it comes to social media. Everything you do on and offline is a series of personal choices and your mentality is what gears you to act and respond a certain way. There is an undeniable emphasis on youth culture and trends which of course would be difficult for anyone to maintain as it is ever changing. For Essena her journey began at a young age therefore she may have not been able to process the difficulty and responsibility of maintaing a public image. I understand how the pressure would be extensive for anyone to deal with, what I don’t understand is the hysteria behind Essena’s message. Not everyone who is an social media icon/public figure is vapid, shallow or self centered, many realize that being imperfect is what makes their brand. Essena chose to brand herself as a perfected beach babe endorsed by several networks and took the cake with it, if living a lie was a part of her brand, that’s a personal choice not a label which should be tagged on every instagrammer or popular blogger.
I could not agree more with your stance on Essena O'Neil and her complete meltdown about social media. Although it is easy to be sympathetic to a young and rather naive O'Neil for the struggles she faced while perfecting this online identity she had created for herself, I find it increasingly more difficult to be sympathetic for her when she solely blames social media for being this fake and shallow platform. O'Neil chose to live her life online, as a result she needs to be held accountable for her actions online. As you stated, if living a lie was connected to her brand, that was a choice of her own and at no costs should be attached to other social media stars. There are several Instagram and other social media stars out there in the world who have managed to live a completely authentic and pleasing life online... This just goes to show that O'Neil needs to calm down.
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-TD
Hey Carmen,
ReplyDeleteFirst i'd like to start off by saying very well written post and a lot of the points you make are extremely accurate. Particularly I agree with you when you discuss how Essena chose to brand herself in the way she did and that being involved in social media is something that we ourselves control. The people we are online are not our true selves. We choose what we want the online world to see of us. You make some really interesting points, thanks for sharing!
Hey Carmen,
ReplyDeleteI just want to start off by saying your title is amazing, definitely caught my eye and made me want to read further into your post. In terms of the content I 100% agree with you on the fact that Essena O’Neill’s video was “borderline irritating”. However, considering that she is so young and has so many followers I understand where she is coming from and why she broke down from all of the pressure. Even though I'm not "Instafamous" like her, I will admit that I spend a disgusting amount of time editing photos I post to my account including creating the right caption, emojis, hashtags, filters, etc. The amount of time spent in my posts connects with how Van Dijck suggests that social media derives from a continuous pressure from both peers and technology.
Her association between social media platforms and businesses were to advertise and attract users –hence her paid profession as a model through her “fake” accounts. In addition, the pressure for approval through social media is based on what her agency decides to post on her accounts. She may be the model takes photo-shoots for hours to capture that one perfect photo, but in the end the pressure is technically upon the businesses and agencies that support her.