By now, most people have probably heard of Essena O’Neill. The former Australian Instagram model, and social media “celebrity” deleted all of her social media accounts earlier this week, and made sure everyone knew she was doing so. It is quite possible that Essena has become more famous since deleting her accounts, than she ever was as a “model”. Essena has since come out and explained that her reason behind deleting her accounts was because she felt she was living a fake life on social media. I do not want to discredit Essena’s point for doing this at all. However, with all of the news and attention the topic has gotten, it is difficult to believe that she was unhappy in the social media spotlight.
Before permanently deleting her social media accounts, Essena changed captions on many of her Instagrams, and posted a “final” video on YouTube explaining her reason for removing herself from the Internet. But, too shortly after posting that video, she took to Vimeo and posted a nearly 5 minute video about how she did not want to receive this much attention for what she did. You can see the video, here. In addition, she essentially began asking viewers for money. It was rather obvious from her previous social media posts that she was in fact being paid for product placement, as are many Instagram “celebrities”. So now that Essena is no longer part of the social media world, she is asking for donations for her “cause”. She has started a website, “Let’s Be Game Changers”, which is all about promoting positive self image, and that we are more than the number of likes we get on an Instagram post.
“I’m over this celebrity culture, hot gossip and endless advertisements. I used to live in the ‘real world’ – a world dictated by screens, numbers, money and superficial ideas of happiness. I’m over people and company’s that just want to sell, not create out of passion and purpose. Mass media, mass thoughts and mass fear – I think all of it is limiting our real potential here on earth.” (Let’s Be Game Changers)
As expected, the social media world has exploded in response to this. Other social media gurus who were once Essena’s “friends” have come out and expressed that all of this is fake and a large cry for attention. You can see one YouTube response, here. Other Internet celebrities such as model Alexis Ren, have also responded to Essena, but in a much less hostile way.
“Personally I am so grateful to be apart of this generation where we can express ourselves so beautifully and communicate with people across the world as if they were standing next to us. I do agree that too much of one thing isn’t healthy. Social media can be used as a tool of knowledge and growth, or it can be abused.” (@alexisren on Instagram)
I personally am a fan of Alexis Ren’s approach. While I do not think what Essena did was necessarily the right approach, I absolutely do see where she was coming from. Just like anything else, too much social media can become unhealthy. As the social media generation it is important that we recognize that there is so much more to life than the number of likes we get on an Instagram or the number of favorites on Twitter.
HCXO,
Paige