You see people on Instagram who seem to have it all; perfect bodies, perfect natural-looking hair, stylish clothes and a dream life where they seem to always be on vacation. Judging by their social media, these people seem to be confident with themselves and happy with what they are doing. After watching Essena O'Neill's YouTube video, we learn that we shouldn't always believe what we see on social media platforms.
Above is the video that Essena O'Neill posted where she tells about her inside into the world of social media that not many people are aware of, and how it works in advertising. The motivation to be a social media phenom started when she was 12. She felt unworthy and not beautiful to society's standards. She obsessively stalked other famous social media personalities, such as models, who "looked like that had it all and were happy" -- later she found out that no matter how many likes or views a person has does not create happiness because in the end, she keep wanting more and more likes, followers and praise.
"I had it all and I was miserable" - Essena O'Neill
O'Neill admits that "having it all on social media means absolutely nothing in real life." Everything she was doing was edited to get more value and more views. Social media is now a business. Companies would email her with dot points of what she should say, times to post and what to do with their product in her pictures.
Before deleting her Instagram account, O'Neill had re-written her captions on many of her photos, explaining she was paid to promote clothing brands and drinks. She said how taking these photos took up a lot of time to come up with the "perfect" image.
Does thousands of followers and getting paid to wear a certain clothing brand and model in them really make the social media personalities happy? Essena O'Neill shared that there are so many things that she could have done with her time. She loves writing and gave it up to try to be more like people she saw on social media because she thought they were happy and confident, and she wanted that. She let herself be defined by something that is not real, she distanced herself from people to be more famous on social media, which now she regrets.
O'Neill admits she let herself get sucked into thinking she could be defined by social media and the number of likes, followers and views.
"Lets Be Game Changers"
O'Neill created a website where she shares what she loves and what she is passionate about. On the website she has a support tab -- since cutting herself off from her income that came from being a social media phenom -- she needs money and is looking for her fan's support.
After watching her video and learning more about her story and struggles, you cant help but to think how social media truly does affect our lives. Why do we constantly think about posting our "life" to social media platforms? We should be taking opportunities to learn from experience, take our own paths and create our own person -- not on social media.
