Until last week, eighteen year-old Instagram model Essena O’Neill was the perfect model of what, in her opinion, Instagram and other social media sites are all about: deception, vanity, and competition. With 612 000 followers in tow, she walked through life a slave to her internet popularity; she spent hours trying to find the perfect lighting, to get the perfect windblown look in each of her over 2000 photos.
But by October 27th, she had had enough. She deleted almost all of her photos, and captioned the few surviving shots with the “real” and sometimes not so glamorous stories behind them. And what message does she wish to send to her fellow Instagrammers?
“[Don’t] let yourself be defined by numbers. [Don’t] let yourself be defined by something that is not pure, that is not real.”
The fabricated world of social media and “contrived perfection” had become all-consuming, so she simply… stopped.
And now you’re saying, “But how will people know what she’s doing? How will she talk to her friends?”
Essena, who had hundreds of thousands of followers and made $2000 on every post, walked away from all of it. So why can’t you?
Take a look at Essena’s video speaking out against social media here.
And it may be that Essena’s campaign against social media is all an (ironic) ploy to gain more fame and attention on the internet. But, in that case, her story is an even greater testament to just how pathetic and deceptive the industry of online self-promotion is, whether it’s being perpetrated by an 18 year-old Instagram model or by the 13 year-old wannabe in your science class.
So take some time to reflect on social media; that is, if you can spare some of the time you spend on social media. Just maybe you’ll realize, as I did, that it’s time to cut back on the Instagram a little.
Source:
main photo taken from www.artistrndnew.tk
