Instagram celeb vertelt waarheid over internetfaam: ‘Het is allemaal fake’

De 18-jarige Essena O’Neill verzamelde een half miljoen volgers op Instagram en nog eens honderdduizenden op andere sociale mediakanalen. Haar veganistische tips, outfit posts en fitspo foto’s bezorgden haar faam, maar ook stress en een internetverslaving. Ze klapt uit de biecht over de wereld achter sociale mediasterren.

Geld verdienen met sociale media kan handig zijn, maar kan ook erg angstaanjagend worden. Dat is wat er gebeurde met de Australische Essena O’Neill. De druk om steeds meer volgers en likes te verzamelen werd haar te veel.

Ze verwijderde een hele resem foto’s en veranderde de naam van haar Instagramprofiel naar ‘Social Media Is Not Real Life’. Op die manier hoopt ze haar volgers ervan te overtuigen dat de mensen die ze volgen via Instagram ook maar gewone mensen zijn met angsten en problemen. Ook vertelt ze eerlijk hoeveel geld ze verdiende met bepaalde posts en hoe onzeker ze zich voelde na het posten van foto’s.

‘Ik ben het grootste deel van mijn tienerjaren verslaafd geweest aan sociale media, sociale goedkeuring, sociale status en mijn uiterlijk’, schrijft O’Neill over haar beslissing om korte metten te maken met haar Instagramfaam. ‘We gaan er zo ver in dat we de misleiding van sociale mediakanalen niet meer zien. Ik werd erdoor verstikt.’ (LP)

I’m quitting Instagram, YouTube and Tumblr. Deleted over 2000 photos here today that served no real purpose other than self promotion. Without realising, I’ve spent majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance. Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real. It’s contrived images and edited clips ranked against each other. It’s a system based on social approval, likes, validation in views, success in followers. It’s perfectly orchestrated self absorbed judgement. I was consumed by it. I spent majority of my day aimlessly scrolling, hours on YouTube… How can we see ourselves and our true purpose/talents if we are constantly viewing others? Many of us are in so deep we don’t realise it’s delusional powers and the impact it has on our lives. There’s a select few photos I left here, half are original captions that I believe to be educational, the other half are photos that deluded you. It was never my conscious intention, but I deluded a lot of people…Call it deception, manipulation, lying, not saying the whole truth… I was both addicted to social approval and terrified no one would value me for myself. So I rewrote the captions of these false photos with short shots of reality. EVERYTHING EXPLAINED IN THE LINK IN MY BIO. There’s no likes or views or followers there. Just my content as raw as I want. It’s all going to be free of course. My main vegan videos will still be on YouTube, but vimeo will host all the new quality content. Made to help not to get views or $$$. How will I spread my message? Organically. If it moves someone, they tell their friends about it, simple as that. I’ll be talking about vegansim, creative imagery with purpose, poems, writing, interviews with people that inspire me, and of course the finical reality behind deluding people off Instagram…I was so caught up in it all. P.S when the new form of social sharing comes out, something that doesn’t revolve around likes and views but based on similar topics/quality for example, I will see you there, whenever that day comes…. We must create change.

Een foto die is geplaatst door Social Media Is Not Real Life (@essenaoneill) op 26 Okt 2015 om 10:51 PDT

Was paid $400 to post a dress. That’s when I had maybe 150k followers, with half a million followers, I know of many online brands (with big budgets) that pay up to $2000 per post. Nothing is wrong with accepting brand deals. I just think it should be known. This photo had no substance, it was not of ethical manufacturing (I was uneducated at the time). SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT REAL is my point. Be aware what people promote, ask yourself, what’s their intention behind the photo?

Een foto die is geplaatst door Social Media Is Not Real Life (@essenaoneill) op 26 Mei 2014 om 12:16 PDT