Post #4 - Essena O'Neil & Van Dijck

Social media has been buzzing with Essena O’Neill, the YouTube/Instagram celebrity, who recently posted the ‘Why I REALLY am quitting social media’ confession video. During this seventeen minute long video O’Neill goes into great detail describing how social media portrayed her life as living “the dream” with over 500 000 followers surrounded by wealth, fame and power – yet she was constantly miserable and considered her material fake. Personally, I think that her confession was a great message for young teenage girls who strive to achieve that unrealistic ‘perfect’ image.

I think that Essena O’Neil supports Jose Van Dijck’s view of neoliberal economic principles. Van Dijck mentions that there are three ways that the culture of connectivity evolves; continuous pressure, platform tactics, and the resetting of boundaries between private, corporate and public domains (Van Dijck, 21). As a star on social media O’Neill has had the continuous pressure of posting ‘perfect’ pictures or videos in order to both please her half a million fans and increase the amount of followers. In her confession video O’Neil mentions that some photo shoots would be hours long in order to capture that ‘perfect’ moment, along with all of the editing and configurations made to the photos before it could be posted to her account. In her video she mentions how the final products posted would portray a fake reality to her followers. These posts reflect what O’Neill says in her video of someone who ‘has it all’. Van Dijck goes on to explain how there is intense competition between social media accounts with a “winner-takes-all mindset” (Van Dijck, 21). Companies are smart and know the power social media accounts have on users, particularly teenagers. They exploit their power and attempt to portray ‘perfect’ lives lived by famous users such as Essena O’Neill. Ever since the creation of photoshop, the media has been able to alter the audiences’ perceptions. For example, magazine covers always have always used touch ups and alterations to whoever is on the cover. Companies have adjusted to society and now portray these photos to their audiences via social media platforms because that is where their target audience can be exposed to their media.

I think that the posting of ‘Why I REALLY am quitting social media’ was definitely a big risk for Essenna O’Neill. She risked not only her ‘fame and fortune’ of being a social media celebrity, but she risked being talking negatively by other famous social media users and in the media. Some people may see this as a stunt to get a minute in the spotlight – which did happen. I completely understand where she is coming from, however I think that her video rant describes a typical life of a model, which is what her choice of work was. Her social media accounts were not used in the same way that an average person using them for. An average user will generally update followers (majority of who are friends and family) of fun adventures of events that are happening in their life. The fact that O’Neill was signed up with a modelling agency and got paid to be posting these ‘perfect’ photos supports that her use of social media is different than a typical user. In my opinion I think that this was part of her job and shown by how many followers she had she was clearly good at being a model. Mentioning in her video “I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know how I’m going to make money” is pathetic to me because she is still a teenager and my answer to her question is to get an education and get a job like the rest of us who are not ‘Instafamous’.

Overall, I think that O’Neill does show the ‘struggles’ of being a famous social media user in her video and does support Van Dijcks view of neoliberal economic principles. Without the content produced by users (particularly models and famous social media users) social media platforms would not be able to make a profit. Sharing content online and making content go viral spreads to users all over the world and keeps us connected through online platforms.