Popular Instagrammer Essena O'Niell recently quit social media and it send a shockwave throughout the entire internet. If your Facebook newsfeed is anything like mine, it's probably cluttered with her story. She's a 19-year-old model who has approximately 37,000 followers on Instagram. She edited the captions on many of her old photos explaining, "I fell in love with this idea that I could be of value to other people." She further explained that she had starved herself to look good in her pictures and placed her entire self-worth in other people's approval of her appearance. A few days later, she turned her Instagram private and deleted all the photos of herself. This was probably due to the backlash she received from her "friends" on their social media accounts. I do believe that Essena makes a fair point in that social media can be toxic; however, I don't think it is fair for her to call all of it fake.
When I first scrolled through her Instagram, the captions inspired me and made me question my own Instagram and Facebook account. I started to wonder if my pictures were just as fake as she was telling us that they were. I started to see some of the truth in her statements. I am the first to admit that some of my photos (not all) are only posted to make people believe that I have my life together. I am also the first to admit that my life is not under control by any means. The thing is, it's human nature to want to show people the good things in your life. Kayla Itsines, a fitness expert with 3.9 million followers on Instagram, says, "On my account, I'll tell you now, you don't see a lot of things. Not because I don't want to show you, because I cannot physically take a photo of them. Things like... the 5 a.m. wake-ups, the late nights, the constant bullying, the lack of support and understanding of friends, the stress... and so much more." What we need to keep in mind, though, is that just because we don't post the bad things on social media, it doesn't mean they don't exist.
In the picture above, Essena edited her caption and explains to her followers that taking that picture and posting it on social media was the only thing that made her happy all day. I think that when our image on social media becomes the sole thing that matters to us, we have crossed a line. That's not living. If the only reason you do something is to get likes on Instagram, then you need to reevaluate your priorities. You are not only the picture people see as they scroll through their news feed.
Essena explains that she was paid to promote clothing items on Instagram, thus making her posts fake. However, she chose to promote them and she chose to post them the way she did. She chose to stage her pictures. You can choose what you post too. While most of us don't have companies offering us to model their products, we might struggle with trying to sell ourselves to the general public by trying to make our followers believe we have more fun than we do. How many times have you been at a party or event and heard someone say, "We need to take a pic for Insta!"? Just like Essena, we stage pictures to get likes.
Essena told her followers that all social media is fake and that none of it is real. This is where I beg to differ. For example, I posted this photo above on my Instagram account. This picture is 100 percent candid, and the girls in this picture really are my friends. Just because Essena O'Niell's Instagram account was a lie, it doesn't mean that everyone else's is. Yes, we don't usually post the low points of our life on the internet, but that doesn't mean the happy pictures we post are fake. You choose what you post. Odds are your Instagram features the best parts of your life, and you probably look good in all your photos, but that doesn't mean you're never sad or look a little rough. We should expect that every person, no matter how glamorous they appear online, has their struggles. Take social media with a grain of salt. It's as real as the person behind the account is.
