Today I’d like to talk about something that we know perfectly well – the social media. I guess all of us use the social media, e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter. There are many applications that not only help you communicate with friends but also let you create yourself in front of other people, very often strangers.
I’d like to share a story of an 18 year old girl from Australia called Essena O’Neill.
She was a social media star - with a successful YouTube account, Tumblr, Snapchat and of course Instagram. She had over 700k Instagram followers and she was making profit out of running it! She said that $2000AUD (which is circa 5500 zł) for a post was “easy" to get.
But not anymore, because on 27 October she deleted 2000 pictures and left only 100 with a shocking, edited caption to reveal the truth of being a social media celebrity.
She exposed the backstage of the social media life, like for example about “making of” a perfect bikini photo – taking 100 shots until her stomach doesn’t look good enough, not eating for a day to look better, and many more, what was quite shocking. Many of us might think that instagirls just post photos of who they are, of how they spend their ‘casual time’. But it’s not really like that.
Here are archive screenshots of her photos, because the account does not exist any longer:
Sources: http://www.elle.com/culture/news/a31635/essena-oneill-instagram-social-media-is-not-real-life/
Now
she is running a website http://www.letsbegamechangers.com/ where she fights
with the social media pressure and encourages young people to stop this crazy mechanism of
creating an illusion of perfect life. She posted a lot of videos where she
confesses that this is not a real life, that she
used to be focused only on numbers; the numbers
were something that described her. A perfect photo that she took every day were just a delusion, and was not fun
anymore.
I
wonder what you think about it, here’s my
opinion. She is from another “generation” which is Generation
Z (she was born in 1996) - these are people who grew up with highly
sophisticated media and computer environment and are very internet and social
media savvy, they somehow live it. For us, Millennials
(born before 1995) it all sounds pretty weird, but I am afraid that for other
generations it might be a totally different
experience. For kids now there’s an enormous social pressure to post everything
on the internet, to have profiles on multiple
social media platforms, to have many followers, likes and overall hype, to be
considered “cool” or “popular”. This girl
started when she was 16, and after 3 years she decided to quit. How conscious
can you be when you’re 16?
I
personally use Instagram, mostly for watching people I am following, not really
uploading stuff and I see those perfect
profiles but never have I thought how it might
be to run them, how it is to be on the other side. This might be a psychically
devastating 24/7 job, especially for somebody who is still a teen. We might say
“c’mon, it’s just an Instagram profile”, and I guess many of us won’t even feel
empathy for this girl, and think it is pathetic. But in my opinion it’s not
only about “social media drama” she made, but about goals and priorities she had for those 3 years, that she created an illusion of happiness to have more followers and
hype, and wasn’t happy at all!
For
me personally it’s quite weird that a person who is so “against” it all starts
to run a website where she, hmm, is still posting stuff instead of just finishing with it and finding
a real life ;) So has she
only changed her medium and somehow attitude, to be more reliable? But
maybe that’s what Generation Z is all about? Are
they so addicted to not being neglected?
What is your opinion on this topic?
Sources:
Comments
It is terrible but awesome as well. She payed attention for a big problem. Many young people think that what they look at the internet is real life. But it isn't like that.
I think that social media are a trap. We spend there more than enough time. I'm not a person who tells whole world when I brush my teeth. But many people who are younger than me show all their lifetime in the internet. I think that they loose a lot. We are a generation which knows fun in a backyard but they know only virtual life.
I use only facebook and usually it is tool for me, great place for marketing and contact with other people, but I still think that conversation in real life is worth more than chat, etc.
Hmm, Your last paragraph have a lot of sense. I think that there is something about it too.
Of course we are from different generation and all those social media came to us little bit later (when we were older) and for me it is even scary to imagine how it would be if we were on their’s positions. And it is even more scary what it will be in the next few years, and how those teenagers will survive in world without normal life.
I honestly don't get that whole hype with the social media, maybe if there was a great age difference, but I'm only 5 years older than that girl, I have a cousin 8 years younger than me and she's also not into social media, so I guess it's not like it's the generation itself - it's the people and some are influenced way too easily.
I’ve heard about the story of Essena O’Neill. I agree that she is from a different generation and I’m kind of glad that there were no social media when we were young (imagine having all your immature thought posted all over the Internet) but it was her conscious decision to start working in a way she did. Models often start at a young age – even 13/14 years old - and work hard on fashion shows and photographic sessions which take hours and hundreds of takes to get the right image so it’s not a surprise that this girl had to take a lot of photos to take one perfect shot. I don’t really know what’s so surprising about that, it’s just a part of being a model. I think it’s immature and silly to stop eating just to look good in a photo and I wonder where her parents were in all of this. If she didn’t like the products which she was promoting she could be more excluding and from what I’ve gather she was pretty popular so she had a choice to promote only what she liked. She made a lot of money using her good looks and got tired of working this way and that’s fine but I don’t feel her crying is really genuine and as you’ve said she only changed her medium and if you check out the website you can see that she is gathering funds there for “Content produced from my own creative expression. Basically my writing, videos and future projects.” If she doesn’t like social media and her previous work and wants people to support her new content that’s totally fine but it’s seems to be just a planned move to start a new career.
I believe that being a model, promoting products can be very tiring and you yourself are becoming a product, but let’s be honest it’s not an underpaid job in factory, she got a tone of money, probably some free travel and beautiful things. I assure you that many people don’t mind taking a 100 photos to get one good take for 2,000 dollars and it’s a job like any other (model job). I read and watch different bloggers and I’m aware that they are promoting products and in my opinion it’s better to be frank about it then to hide it. So she at least raised a valid issue that some people hide their commercial involvement. I hope this girl will find what she is looking for in life but I don’t see her disappearing from the Internet any time soon ;)
I think kids in Poland are not that much social media savvy, but kids in for example in US are crazy about every single new application. And it might be a difference that we don't understand (And probably won't :P )
According to immature thoughts posted in internet - even when I read some fb status – mine, or my friends' – that are 5 years already I sometimes feel ashamed, so YES, I am glad there wasn't that much social media. But there were also blogs, didn't they? It was quite popular but bloggers weren't that popular as they are today...?
Yeah, I totally agree with you when it comes to Essena story. It just doesn't look genuine, authentically, maybe another marketing trick to gather followers, or whatever... And as you mentioned - it was a job. The only problem is that she was pretending all of this, in your job you are authentic, but she was faking it all the time, what is not like a normal job. But she could have rejected the things she didn't like, as you mentioned :) That's true
The other thing about social media celebrities is that everybody wants to lead a life like theirs. Look at these fashion bloggers, Maffashion or Jessica Mercedes, their lives are made of banquets, expensive clothes, bags and cosmetics. They live in beautiful apartments or hotels and have everything they need. But Essena’s action makes me wonder what is the price for that, even though we think that they get it all for free.
Damn, Thermomix is one of the best thing I have in a kitchen, seriously! I would understood if someone recommend it even for free haha :D
And yeah, I totally agree with your comment, that's sick that it became a 24/7 job, but as you noticed - maybe it's worth the price?
BTW many bloggers have "outside help", they event have a team that runs all social media profiles. In my opinion it is not genuine anymore and it's disappointing for fans to find out that a fb account or blog (!) is not even run by the blogger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF4WuVRGiZM
For me it is a little scary. Of course I use facebook or instagram and the things which I share certainly create an image of myself. In my opinion social media are both convenience and a curse. For many, they are a form of earnings and way of communication, the worst that sometimes become the only form of communication. People slowly lose their ability to talk to each other, because they prefer to look at the phone screen.
My opinion about Essena O'neil, I think she knew what she was doing, so I find it all a bit pathetic and completely me it doesn't move. If she would like to fight with social media certainly never make another page on which crosses the same stupidity as in the previous. I think that all is a good marketing ploy, which unfortunately playing on people's emotions.
I would say that those social media websites are like addiction for people, because they very often cannot spend a day without checking their Insagram or Facebook. Due to that I think that for Essena O’Neill just psychologically is extremely hard to quite her social media life. Yes, she is trying to show all bad sides of it, but actually it is her new way, strategy to have more and new attention to her. And still Essenna continues her social media life/business, but now from the new perspective to attract people and make them curious, because what she is doing now is something new and unusual for bloggers. In my opinion, she hasn’t quite with her “Internet world” yet. It is just the begging of her new story.
However, from the business perspective social media has numerous benefits and attractions.
I'm glad that I didn't have such an access to social media, or Internet in general, when I was a kid. Nowadays I use Facebook, but only because I want to stay in touch and chat with some people. I recently created, after at least a year of hesitation, a fan page to showcase my artwork because a lot of my artist friends said it's a great way to advertise. But I really hate this platform, I try to post as little personal information as possible and use it only when I really need to.
As for the girl, I agree with the last part of your presentation. It's strange she just didn't give up on social media if it hurt her so much - that fits the definition of addiction pretty well. Or maybe it's how Generation Z works. Maybe she really wants to do something good and understands that it is the only way she will communicate this important message to her peers. But I'm too suspicious to believe in that.
a waste of time…Beacause of this ideal profiles ordinary people begin to have complexes. They don’t think about this terrible backstage of the social media. I don’t know why people lie about their life. Maybe they want to make a new image of them. They want to be perfect but nobody is perfect.
I think it's important to show people - especially young people - that celebrities are not ideal people, that they don't have perfect skin or hair, that they're being stylized by the best stylists using expensive clothes, their hair are being made by the best hairdressers, and then they're being photoshopped before they end up on a cover of a magazine. But I don't think that Essena's action should focus so much on taking many pictures before you choose the right one (because, hey, everyone does that and there's nothing wrong in wanting to look good) or getting paid for advertising some clothes (well, she's a model - there's nothing wrong in getting paid for that). I'm afraid her actions could cause some side effects like shaming all selfies in general, or the pictures where you can visibly see someone's effort, or getting paid for advertising something.
I remember some past events where the famous actresses posted their no-makeup selfies to show their human side, or made affairs when their photos were overphotoshopped in some ridiculous way. Actions like that convince me much more in their cause.
In my opinion this girl just some 'easier' way to get attention and earn money. Instead of creating another fashion blog she turned it into fashion-hating blog.
People for the hard work performed must maintain the whole family, and one person for a few pictures gets a huge amount of money - it's crazy. I do not feel sorry about this girl nor people like her, if she have a problem should go to a psychotherapist, not create a website.
Maybe all that easy cash and fame was too much to resist?
I can't help but feel this whole thing is some sort of a hoax to gain even more recognition. Sorry.
Personally I think it's obvious that the world presented by bloggers is in big part fiction. I think that beutifull, idealized photos don't have to be a source of frustration, they should bring inspiration. I admire people who are hardworking and focused on something - it's not important whether you are a fashion blogger, an illustrator, cook, writer or a football player - It's fantastic that you do something.