Essena O’Neil is the 18 year old girl who blew up the internet just over a month ago. Essena gained her fame last month as she ‘quit’ social media and tried to portray a particular message to her followers. Essena wanted to share stories and experiences with dealing with social media platforms and explains that she was addicted to what others thought of her. She was obsessed with it and believed that the number of likes she got on her photos defined her.
Essena associated herself with the neoliberal model explained by Van Dicjk. She took pride in her likes, shares and followers and let this define her. I know she is not the only girl out there that feel like these things define you, whether it is your online presence or even your every day presence. This absolutely parallels Van Dijck’s argument that social media creates and then amplifies different social insecurities and anxieties.
I find that she contradicts herself. She claims that she quit social media as it is fake however she uses social media to ask for money and ask for people to help her raise money. She now has a website campaign page. I do agree with her arguments that social media can create anxieties and it is not a real representation of yourself. Van Dijck states, "Connectivity derives from a continuous pressure -- from both peers and from technology -- to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances” (21). Essena experiences with social media correlates with Van Dicjks model of culture of connectivity as she felt she had an expectation to her followers and a great deal of pressure to peruse fame and importance on her social media platforms. However, she needs to be true in what she is saying. If she is going to quit social media and quit the whole idea of having "followers" then she needs to completely cut it off. Having a website is still a form of portraying yourself and your views to the rest of the world. To be honest, the people who are likely to view her website are the people who recently followed her on social media platforms.
I completely agree with your argument. Essena did get caught up in her following on social media which created high expectations for her profile. She is the one who to chose to take pictures of her self and edit them until she was pleased with how she looked; social media did not make her do that. I believe that her stance on quitting social media is hypocritical because as you pointed out she has not actually quit since she still has a following on her website. I do believe she has taken a step in the right direction by owning up to how she let social media take over her life, but her life still heavily revolves around her website and following. On her website she has even asked her supporters to donate money to her, if they wish to do so, because she cannot afford her "real life". I found this to be problematic because she blames quitting social media for her no longer having an income.
ReplyDeleteGreat points Sydney! I agree with what you when you end off that starting the people who will be viewing her website are likely to be those who already followed her social media platforms. I think that majority of the people intrigued in her and the controversy following her are those who were previously followers of hers. Nonetheless, it is good that she has recognized how she let social media take over her life but ultimately this was her own decision. I know it is easy to fall into that trap of likes and followers but it is important for everyone to realize that likes and followers are merely a number not a representation of who we truly are.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
- Alexandria
I completely agree with you on this. It was almost humorous that she claims to be so anti-social media and yet in her campaign to quit social media is still posted and spread using social media. For a while after she released the video, Essena still had many of her social media platforms open for the public as well. It just raises debate for whether her cry out was sincere or not. Although she may not have gone about this correctly, she does raise a valid point about social media today and the "dangers" that can come about when someone uses it as a way to potray very specific, idealistic representations of their lives. That being said once again, she generalized millions of people in to one category by saying all social media is fake and that is simply not true. Many people do not feel the need to edit, manipulate and structure the content on their social media in order to gain likes, followers and attention like she did. In the end I believe Essena's argument would have been more effective if her claims had better, more sincere evidence and was not generalized to such a large group.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, great post!
I agree Sydney. I think it is very contradictory of Essena to make a big deal about quitting social media and then start her own website. I understand her concerns with social media. I agree with Alexandria, it is positive she realized the impact social media had on not only herself but others as well. I think she had great intentions, however I feel her approach might not have been the best.
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